In the end of May, I returned to the Oregon Coast to continue my research on Bayocean—a once-glamorous resort town that was swallowed by the Pacific. If I could have read this last sentence a year ago, I would have been befuddled. I’m not a historian. Why on earth am I researching some no-longer-existent town 2500 hundred miles from where I live? The pull to write historical fiction caught me completely by surprise.
Wow there is such a beautiful invitation here in what your sharing. I'm so intrigued by the idea of learning in when your pulled towards something. There is a trust in that both precious and a little unnerving for me. I'd love to hear more about your book project. It sounds really exciting, well done on following the lead
How wonderful to read about what your novel is bringing you. Oddly, I had a similar experience just over a year and a half ago, although mine arose out of doing a lot of freewriting. After only writing non-fiction for many years I also started writing a historical novel, in my case a mystery as that's what I enjoy reading.
Ugh, just wrote a whole comment and navigated away for a second and lost it!! I will try to recreate it.
One: I love this whole story! Two: I have read and listened to a few things lately that have invited me (or, the reader/listener) to open to what is coming next, AND, I have been noticing that I am not feeling any pull toward creativity. I have been wondering whether that is a closed place in myself that could still open again, OR whether it is really that I am at a different stage of life now - I will be 64 in about a week. So maybe it is about something different now? And Three: I would LOVE to read your novel in chunks on this blog, and to dialogue with this community about it! I say, go for it! I vote for that. <3
This essay is really in line with some of my thinking lately. There was a long time when I felt like covid was taking everything from me, but with time and improvement in my health, I can see that it also gave me gifts. The biggest gift it gave me is so random. I've been studying Korean every day for almost two years now, and it is truly a joy. I never had any special interest in Korea and I certainly never expected to learn an east Asian language. But a few different things collided right when I was really sick and frustrated and afraid my brain might never work well again. I read an article saying that I should practice cognitive tasks that I *expected to be bad at,* not ones that used to be easy or routine. That way, there would be no comparison or disappointment. Or anger. I had always wanted to learn a second language, but didn't have time. And suddenly I had all the time. Plus, Korean seemed basically impossible. The first few sessions of learning the alphabet left me physically shaking from fatigue. But I kept going and I think that built the foundation of eventually returning to my job as a scientist and knowing how to gauge my new limits. So I kept on practicing, day after day. I'm certainly not great at read/writing/understanding Korean yet . . . . that will be a project for the next decade or more. But I can read children's books and I was able to translate signs people were waving at a concert for my husband. The language has opened up whole worlds of art and music and future hopes for me. So, hell yes to accepting the unexpected gifts!!
PS -- I would certainly be interested in reading your book on Substack. Congratulations for writing it and for beginning another. Those are huge accomplishments even without a life changing illness in the mix.
The invitation to join and support your writing is itself a gift! I would love to join your journey. Having lived in Oregon briefly many years ago, I am drawn to your story.
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the pull of what you really love.” —Rumi (as rendered by Coleman Barks) What a marvelous thing (full of marvels) that you got pulled into this story! Can’t wait to find out how it keeps working on you. And yes, ebb and flow. The tide comes in, the tide goes out. It’s all aliveness. “Do the things that make you ache with aliveness.” Wow, yes!
"Do the things that make you ache with aliveness." I feel the reverberations of this rattling my teeth. Yes. Isn't this the reason we are here? To follow that pull you describe until we find the things that make us ache with aliveness, then do them, even when it isn't convenient or easy? Truth - capital T Truth! I was fascinated (and moved) by the story of how you came to be writing the historical novel in Oregon. I think what I was most moved by was your having answered yes to that pull, regardless of how unexpected and improbable it may have felt. I've been feeling nudged lately to do some unexpected and improbable things that I never could have imagined. I will think of your story in the moments when fear wants me to ignore the nudge/push back to counter the pull.
Lastly, want to cast my vote as "yes, please!" for you sharing your novel in sections on substack!!
Im so intrigued by the stories that are arriving to stewarded through you, and would very much enjoy reading with you chapter by chapter!
A year ago on the Solstice, I sat in my garden within an internal crisis and asked for a breadcrumb of Guidance. The gentle urge was to be seen, to teach through my Gifts. And thus, my shapeshifting journey began which resulted in a website and a podcast and a substack. I continue to listen and learn this path, with Weaving Wisdom as my Guide. The newest invitation is to create Guided Writing Journeys as a synthesis of how I teach. It feels like an edge, it feels like a stretch and it feels like a magic moment that will grow me deeper INTO what I am teaching.
I love the magic of synchronicities and feel resonant with receiving the gifts!! NOTICING whats arriving to me, through me, for me.
Wow there is such a beautiful invitation here in what your sharing. I'm so intrigued by the idea of learning in when your pulled towards something. There is a trust in that both precious and a little unnerving for me. I'd love to hear more about your book project. It sounds really exciting, well done on following the lead
How wonderful to read about what your novel is bringing you. Oddly, I had a similar experience just over a year and a half ago, although mine arose out of doing a lot of freewriting. After only writing non-fiction for many years I also started writing a historical novel, in my case a mystery as that's what I enjoy reading.
Ugh, just wrote a whole comment and navigated away for a second and lost it!! I will try to recreate it.
One: I love this whole story! Two: I have read and listened to a few things lately that have invited me (or, the reader/listener) to open to what is coming next, AND, I have been noticing that I am not feeling any pull toward creativity. I have been wondering whether that is a closed place in myself that could still open again, OR whether it is really that I am at a different stage of life now - I will be 64 in about a week. So maybe it is about something different now? And Three: I would LOVE to read your novel in chunks on this blog, and to dialogue with this community about it! I say, go for it! I vote for that. <3
This essay is really in line with some of my thinking lately. There was a long time when I felt like covid was taking everything from me, but with time and improvement in my health, I can see that it also gave me gifts. The biggest gift it gave me is so random. I've been studying Korean every day for almost two years now, and it is truly a joy. I never had any special interest in Korea and I certainly never expected to learn an east Asian language. But a few different things collided right when I was really sick and frustrated and afraid my brain might never work well again. I read an article saying that I should practice cognitive tasks that I *expected to be bad at,* not ones that used to be easy or routine. That way, there would be no comparison or disappointment. Or anger. I had always wanted to learn a second language, but didn't have time. And suddenly I had all the time. Plus, Korean seemed basically impossible. The first few sessions of learning the alphabet left me physically shaking from fatigue. But I kept going and I think that built the foundation of eventually returning to my job as a scientist and knowing how to gauge my new limits. So I kept on practicing, day after day. I'm certainly not great at read/writing/understanding Korean yet . . . . that will be a project for the next decade or more. But I can read children's books and I was able to translate signs people were waving at a concert for my husband. The language has opened up whole worlds of art and music and future hopes for me. So, hell yes to accepting the unexpected gifts!!
PS -- I would certainly be interested in reading your book on Substack. Congratulations for writing it and for beginning another. Those are huge accomplishments even without a life changing illness in the mix.
I would love to read All is Well chapter by chapter. Your writing is a gift. Thank you
💛
The invitation to join and support your writing is itself a gift! I would love to join your journey. Having lived in Oregon briefly many years ago, I am drawn to your story.
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the pull of what you really love.” —Rumi (as rendered by Coleman Barks) What a marvelous thing (full of marvels) that you got pulled into this story! Can’t wait to find out how it keeps working on you. And yes, ebb and flow. The tide comes in, the tide goes out. It’s all aliveness. “Do the things that make you ache with aliveness.” Wow, yes!
"Do the things that make you ache with aliveness." I feel the reverberations of this rattling my teeth. Yes. Isn't this the reason we are here? To follow that pull you describe until we find the things that make us ache with aliveness, then do them, even when it isn't convenient or easy? Truth - capital T Truth! I was fascinated (and moved) by the story of how you came to be writing the historical novel in Oregon. I think what I was most moved by was your having answered yes to that pull, regardless of how unexpected and improbable it may have felt. I've been feeling nudged lately to do some unexpected and improbable things that I never could have imagined. I will think of your story in the moments when fear wants me to ignore the nudge/push back to counter the pull.
Lastly, want to cast my vote as "yes, please!" for you sharing your novel in sections on substack!!
Im so intrigued by the stories that are arriving to stewarded through you, and would very much enjoy reading with you chapter by chapter!
A year ago on the Solstice, I sat in my garden within an internal crisis and asked for a breadcrumb of Guidance. The gentle urge was to be seen, to teach through my Gifts. And thus, my shapeshifting journey began which resulted in a website and a podcast and a substack. I continue to listen and learn this path, with Weaving Wisdom as my Guide. The newest invitation is to create Guided Writing Journeys as a synthesis of how I teach. It feels like an edge, it feels like a stretch and it feels like a magic moment that will grow me deeper INTO what I am teaching.
I love the magic of synchronicities and feel resonant with receiving the gifts!! NOTICING whats arriving to me, through me, for me.