Unashamed Writing

Authentic writing from the gut - the studio of a self-taught writer

I have enough love to rewrite my world, but today I’ll read instead

books are magicI read this quote by Ray Bradbury today:

 

 

 

You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories – science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love everyday for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.

– Ray Bradbury

There’s plenty of love in me to remake not just one world, but many. When that kind of love coexists with the deepest kind of despair though, it’s really hard to see the worth of dreaming instead of its futility. So maybe it’s OK to not write every single day of your life. Maybe sometimes you should just be quiet. Maybe sometimes you should just read.

Here’s one of my favorite passages from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. I’ve used it before because it’s one of the things I’ve read that has affected me most. I’ll probably have most of the book memorized soon.

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. […]

The deeper that sorrow carves intro your being, the more joy you can contain. […]

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

– Kahlil Girand, The Prophet

And here’s one more. One about love. True love. The unselfish kind. The one that doesn’t expect anything in return. The one that cares for the other person’s happiness more than it could ever care for its own.

[…] Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love. […]

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

– Kahlil Girand, The Prophet

Today I’m reading. Tonight I’ll go to sleep with a prayer in my heart and praise upon my lips. Tomorrow I’ll be writing.

Tomorrow I’ll also share one of my favorite quotes about love. It’s a very nice one. I promise it won’t be depressing either. And the day after tomorrow, I’ll actually share something funny.

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