Thursday, July 26, 2012

Treading

Even though I backed off from trying to post so much, I still find it hard to make the time for my minimum weekly post. I've alsways told other people, "Making commitments isn't hard, keeping them is." So that's why I am here, to show you that I am. In starting, I found myself needing a title. I had just finished reading another blog and its related comments, the themes of which were focus, consistency, pacing and continuing-on. For me these attributes are intertwined and when I am content with how things are going that intertinement provides for me a satisfied, working well-being. Other times it seems as if everything is all tangled up and I wind up feeling like I am fighting myself. Now is one of those good periods, so "continuing" was the first idea for a title, but something else came back to me. About three years ago, I had been reading about Carl Jung's experience with the I-Ching. The seriousness that was emphasized in my readings appealed to me as I had several important issues going on, deep internal stuff, so when the text informed me about the imortance of the question to be asked, I took it seriously. I don't want to write an information piece, explaining the whole process, but I will say that the I-Ching is an ancient text, and is sometimes used for guidance in making decisions or as a source of insight, inspiration and wisdom. My interest concerned its involvement with synchornisty, specifiacally the use of reeds or coins, in a series of exercises which rely on chance. My question to the "process" had some reference to why I wasn't writing when I knew it was so important to me. I  recorded my findings and experiences over an extended period of time in a notebook somewhere (as if I needed more time consuming projects, I am certain I will embark on an exploratory mission to dig this up). The point to all this is that the vague answer that was revealed was a symbol with a rough translation meaning "treading." At the time this applied to other spects in my life, as well as my writing. It still does, and always will. Its substance for me is just putting that proverbial one foot in front of the other. The simple pleasures experienced while doing the one foot-deal expose themselves in unexpected ways, like now, having the memory of my I-Ching experience to take out and play with, and share with you. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Pace and Commitment

Even though my blog has been sitting here, practicing for the archives, I have continued following other authors on their blogs, trying to make positive but truthful comments. A lightbulb came on for me the other day as I was reading a very good blogpost, the gist of which is that I can still find the time to create good quality, positive blogs with useful information that I have to share or that I have found from other writers, and remain consistent in my efforts simply by starting out with a publishing commitment which fits my current lifestyle. I may only make one blog-post per week for a while, but doing so will let me remain loyal to all my commitments in a manner that is acceptable to me.

This is something that I already knew, but had let outside pressures sway me from what I knew works for me. The rule of thumb for me has been: Start with quality and consistency, and you'll pick up speed. Start with speed and poor quality, and the quality rarely improves. I could have put it more eloquently, but it says what I want, just the way it is. It's just another thread unravelling from the adage, "Slow and steady wins the race."