Aha! I see! Vision, clarity,
the light goes on! In the old Betty Boop cartoons, whenever Grampy is presented
with a problem, he whips out a mortarboard from his pocket and places it on his
head. He sits down and closes his eyes—shutting out the world around him. Think!
Think! Think! The lightbulb turns on! Voila! An idea! He is so happy, he develops multiple dancing
feet—his idea makes him a Super Power. He
chortles with glee, and rushes off to implement his idea.
The eye dominates the sixth stage
of journaling for authenticity. It’s
about intuition, inspiration—imagination.
The word poem derives from a Greek word meaning ‘to create.’ At
this stage, we are creating something new: drafting a poem, developing an idea
for an essay, writing lyrics for a song, finalizing a closing argument for
court. Although any of these works of
the imagination are fueled by writing at the other stages—here, the plane has
left the runway—we soar. We can barely stop ourselves—time disappears. We’re On!
In his book
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
identifies “Flow” as that state between anxiety and apathy, where we are
totally and joyfully immersed in a task that challenges and so totally involves
us that we transcend our everyday experience and soar. Writing from the sixth
stage is to be in the Flow.
One of the
many gifts of a daily journal is that it creates the conditions for this stage,
awash in inspiration, intuition, exuberance, surprise, joy. This stage cannot be contrived by deliberate
promptings—as the Love stage might be by consciously expressing gratitudes; or the
Survival stage is fueled by a gripe. This stage is triggered by the inspiration
that comes from writing, at all, from any of the other stages. It comes from showing up. It comes not just from waiting by The Wall,
but from welcoming it. Sit down. Close your eyes. Don’t scare the idea away with distractions.
Prolific
poet Anne Sexton said that they only discipline is to write when the inspiration
comes. Inspiration is shy. It waits until it’s safe. It is a child of Freedom. It does not come when summoned. It does not come on cue. If something comes from manipulation, it’s not
inspiration. But if we write when the
inspiration comes—in the shower, on the road, folding laundry—inspiration will come
to trust us. It will come more
often.
Inspiration is a mischievous child,
and comes at inconvenient times—to test if we will love and nurture it. So, if it comes, get off the road and dictate
a note into your phone. Yell to your roommate
from the shower to jot you a Post-It. Write on your arm with eyebrow
pencil. Chalk a sidewalk. Knife a note
in the top of your Jell-O. As soon as
you can, grab your journal and Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Eli Hernandez regularly wrote two
of his three daily pages from whatever of the first five stages he was
entertaining for the day. For his third
page, he wrote a poem. Sometimes from
the inspiration of the moment. Sometimes
from prior jotted inspirations.
Watch for
those moments when the switch goes on—when your heart quickens and your eyes
seem to take in more light. Take note. Then https://becauseicanteach.blogspot.com/2018/11/stealth-override-ambush-surprise-write.html
© Susanna Rich, 2020
Works Cited:
Text:
Csikszentmihalyi,
Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of
Optimal Experience. New York: Harper,
2008.
Because I Can Teach:
Stealth, Override, Ambush, Surprise: https://becauseicanteach.blogspot.com/2018/11/stealth-override-ambush-surprise-write.html
Journal for Authenticity Series:
Settling Down: https://becauseicanteach.blogspot.com/2020/01/journal-for-authenticity-1-settling-down.html
How Much?
Survival:
Security:
Power:
Love:
Communicate:
The Wall:
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