Prompting Yourself To Write 34
I put all the blame, for the mushiness to come, squarely on Julia Cameron!
It was her idea, afterall. :-D
There it is, in Week 5 of her book Walking in This World...
"Do I allow myself to have passion? Take pen in hand and write yourself a love letter. Be as specific and as affectionate as you can imagine."
OK, so there I was, yesterday evening, in a Del Taco, in Orange, Ca., with nothing better to do, while scarfing down my meal, but to just start writing, come what may, or april, I mean it IS april afer all. :-D
2 hours later I was spent.
Dear Mad Macedonian: A Love Letter
Dear Kiril The Mad Macedonian:
I love you! I love you! I love you!
I have loved you as far back as I can remember, probably going back to when you wrote your first story, and did your first book report and science project, in your 2nd elementary school.
Probably since you gave MLK's "I have a Dream Speech", also in that elementary school.
I loved watching you discover the joys of reading, beginning with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Star Trek and all those scary John Saul novels, back when all he could think to do was find gruesome ways to kill off kids and teens..
I loved watching you discover your love for history, news and politics and use your imagination to "broadcast" a baseball, or basketball game, as you tossed a tennis ball against the wall, or a basketball against the side of the roof, in your backyard.
I loved how you wrote your own extended "History of the Federation" within the pages of the first Trek reference book ever published, by erasing and writing over, much of what was in the freakin' book!
I simply adored your emerging, peculiar, sense of humor as a teen and 20-something.
Your serious side, growing up, helping your Mom and neighbors and being a neighborhood watch volunteer, impressed me and made me proud, but your letters to the editor of local papers, or to comic books, that got published, made an even greater impression on me.
Who am I?
I'm your creative side, that part of you that loves to write...write poems and tell stories, write opinions and tell funnies and do research for essays and reports.
I'm your imagination...proud, bold, unchained and unafraid!
I was horrified and extremely worried when, by the time you had turned 30, and your parents had died, and you were alone, your creative, imaginative and adventuresome, spirit seemed to mostly take a powder.
You let yourself be "On Call" for your family for far too long, until you were almost 40!
That stiffled me, your creativity!
Except for a self portrait, published in a Star Trek Fan Anthology in 1990 and a few letters to the editor in the 90's, there was nothing for far too long.
Imagine the hope that sprang up in me when you bought a computer in 1998, adopted a kitten and turned it into your creative muse online!
Why did you let your creative passion almost die?
Even back then, in those 3 decades, some thought you weird, as they do today, but remember, The Great Creator made you to become who you are, and He didn't think the design was flawed!
I know your sense of humor flourished, despite everything. :-D
Even though your initial creative efforts were almost completely lost, you didn't let that mistake totally defeat you and when you moved to Orange County I was overjoyed when you discovered your talent for poetry and re-discovered your talent for storytelling and writing essays and doing research.
All of that brought on by your being encouraged by friends to take up blogging.
I loved all you did with your fist personal blog, then this one and your bike blog, The Cycling Dude, but I saw the greatest potential in your early efforts at giving your cat, Nikita, a voice on your blog.
I thought it right and wise, to allow "him" to express "himself" more and more, as the years went by.
Your sense of humor, your writing skills, your ability to express yourself in so many creative ways, had resurfaced and was making a place for itself in your life that could be expanded on with courage, determinationa and effort.
But I sensed fear and reluctance and a lack of complete and total, confidence, in your talent and ability.
I think that's why, despite all the cool poems, humor, stories and journalism, before 2010 and even Nikita finding "his" place in The Cat Blogosphere, that you could not bring yourself to revive that old original creative "Autobiography of Nikita" from your earliest days online (Tales From The Litter Box: Welcome to My Memories), or become unblocked enough to do more with your more recent "Storyteller" series ( The Storyteller Wants YOU!) and "I, Maximus- A Cat Tale" story (Readers thoughts requested on all 3 concepts!! ).
It really made me sad.
But, when, in late 2009, you got it into your head to, FINALLY, give Nikita free reign on his own blog (Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat), my heart started pounding in excitement at the possibilities that could be unleashed by doing that!
I love what you have done since that New Year's Day in 2010!
I love how you have unleashed me, your creative imagination, on the world to bring your unique take on Cat Blogging to an audience eager for something different, though they have yet to realize they are desperate for this something.
I practically had an orgasm of joy when you rescued Elvira Mistress of Felinity and added her to the team of Meowsings!
God, that was brilliant!
She is so sexy and adorable!
Yes, you have been unemployed for a year & a 1/2 and been recovering from a broken ankle for almost a year, but look on the plus side....
Over a decade, you learned new skills, made new friends, built a reputation, small though it and your following, are, in Cat and other, blogging circles, but you have been invited to events, offered opportunities to review books, websites and products...
You were interviewed by local newspapers for your bike blogging, went to a genealogy convention, spoke at an REI and the Riverside Bicycle club, were invited to a showing of a major cycling documentary, were quoted in a book on commuting, wrote reviews for the local Symphony for a year, for free and more And, while I enjoyed helping you do all of that and admired the results, I sensed you had so much more to offer and the first decade has just been a warm-up for all that is yet to come.
Think of the possibilities!
Don't let the challenges of the past 2 years, or the uncertainty of the future, in this most unsettling of election years, hold you back.
I love how you have taken it upon yourself to read all sorts of creative inspiration books have shared with friends and readers, your hopes for moving forward with your life in ways you would not have considered before.
I love how you have returned to doing Open Mics!
I love how you have boldly decided to take on Robert Lee Brewer's Building a Platform Challenge, all this month, begun to leave more comments on blogs and returned to using Twitter in a new way.
It gives me hope!
It makes me happy excited, for you, for ME and for the future!
It makes me so very, very, proud!
I love you, you crazy, Mad Macedonian!
I believe in you! I believe in your writing talent!
I always have and always will!
You ARE a writer! Be proud of that!
Onward and upward!
Forward, into a glorious future! :-D
Dear Kiril: I love this blog post on so many levels.
Here is liquid gold, carefully integrated from your pen, leaving multiple windows of insight into your unique world wide open. Here is my favorite line, and one which I think speaks volumes: "I'm your imagination...proud, bold, unchained, and unafraid!." You are not just the mad macedonian, you are groucho marx incarnate!
You write so richly about your life experiences in a way that is truly enviable. You have captured your successes and turned them into power. You must print this out, autograph it, and frame it so that you may remind yourself each and every day of how good you are with your writing and talents.
Bravo!
Posted by: Amanda socci | July 13, 2012 at 04:32 PM