Writing Prompt – Blessings for Writers and Artists
Okay, let's stop now and count our blessings. Let's take a breath and sit for a while in the quiet, and then let's write down what we have. It's the simplest thing in the world to do, and yet I often forget to do this. A few weeks ago, I took a "Winners" break. In need of a little retail therapy on a day when my writing and creative endeavours were going nowhere fast, I found myself in the coffee/tea mug section of Winners, gazing at this beauty. So, you know, five dollars later, I was feeling a lot better. Which I realize isn't a super sustainable therapy, but still – once in a while it's lovely. And yes, even a blessing.
Elizabeth Gilbert says, "You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings." And while I think this is true to a great extent, (though wow doesn't it sound tiring, too), I think we're also meant to sit quietly and wait at times.
From Rumi:
But listen to me: for one moment,
quit being sad. Hear blessings
dropping their blossoms
around you. God.
When I think of counting my blessings, I immediately think of John O'Donohue's book, To Bless the Space Between Us. And it reminds me that we all can bless. We can bless each other, soul to soul.
For the Artist at the Start of Day
by John O'Donohue
May morning be astir with the harvest of night;
Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,
Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse
That cut right through the surface to a source.
May this be a morning of innocent beginning,
When the gift within you slips clear
Of the sticky web of the personal
With its hurt and its hauntings,
And fixed fortress corners,
A Morning when you become a pure vessel
For what wants to ascend from silence,
May your imagination know
The grace of perfect danger,
To reach beyond imitation,
And the wheel of repetition,
Deep into the call of all
The unfinished and unsolved
Until the veil of the unknown yields
And something original begins
To stir toward your senses
And grow stronger in your heart
In order to come to birth
In a clean line of form,
That claims from time
A rhythm not yet heard,
That calls space to
A different shape.
May it be its own force field
And dwell uniquely
Between the heart and the light
To surprise the hungry eye
By how deftly it fits
About its secret loss.
If you were to write a blessing for creative types, for writers, for artists what would it look like? What if you were to write a blessing for your own work? Let's begin.
May you come to your morning work with dreams still floating around you.
May the coffee you drink be strong and bracing.
When you are granted the time and space to work,
may you banish all doubt and swiftly find the flow and let it carry you.
May the work surprise and delight you and challenge you and change you.
The work is not easy but you feel equal to it and you have the energy to pursue
it into the dark depths and back out into the light.
May the interruptions be minimal and the sparks of creativity abundant.
And, now, your turn. How will you bless your working time, and extend this blessing to others?
