Deciding to have something to say
Sometimes we have a message. There's something we need to say, something we feel strongly needs to be said. By us. Now.
That happens rarely.
The situation most often is that we have an opportunity to participate in a conversation. Sometimes that conversation - like this one - is through what seems to be a one-way channel. In truth, however, if there were no blog (and no blog readers), then I wouldn't be writing today. I am writing in response to that pause in the conversation when it is my time to speak.
Much of writing is the art of identifying the break in the conversation and allowing ourselves to fill it with what comes. If, like the shy party guest, we wait until we have the perfect words or the message that is so important it overcomes our reluctance, we quite often find that the moment has passed. The other people in the conversation have moved on.
What happens when you allow yourself to believe that when you notice a break in the conversation, you will always have something to say? What happens when you notice that the people who have created the break are waiting because they want to hear what comes to you and then comes from you.
This weekend, my partner Chris Keeler and I have invited people we like and admire to talk about hope. Some of them will go bright and some dark, some will be practical and some theoretical. Some might even be spiritual or inspirational. All of them will be filling in the space in the conversation that is waiting for them. All of them will say the right thing - because the right thing is simply to play the part they have been invited to play in a conversation we are all happy to be sharing.
That happens rarely.
The situation most often is that we have an opportunity to participate in a conversation. Sometimes that conversation - like this one - is through what seems to be a one-way channel. In truth, however, if there were no blog (and no blog readers), then I wouldn't be writing today. I am writing in response to that pause in the conversation when it is my time to speak.
Much of writing is the art of identifying the break in the conversation and allowing ourselves to fill it with what comes. If, like the shy party guest, we wait until we have the perfect words or the message that is so important it overcomes our reluctance, we quite often find that the moment has passed. The other people in the conversation have moved on.
What happens when you allow yourself to believe that when you notice a break in the conversation, you will always have something to say? What happens when you notice that the people who have created the break are waiting because they want to hear what comes to you and then comes from you.
This weekend, my partner Chris Keeler and I have invited people we like and admire to talk about hope. Some of them will go bright and some dark, some will be practical and some theoretical. Some might even be spiritual or inspirational. All of them will be filling in the space in the conversation that is waiting for them. All of them will say the right thing - because the right thing is simply to play the part they have been invited to play in a conversation we are all happy to be sharing.
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