Expressing oneself is part of our human condition. We live, we feel, we experience, we put two and two together. We observe, we question, we notice, we think; the details fall into place. It clicks. Reality takes on an ever-sharper focus as we gain deeper and deeper insights. What's the meaning of existence? It's taking shape! I'd want to share an idea with others; that thought inside, getting it out is vital! Get it out! Say it! Write it! Sing it! Play it! Paint it! Sculpt it! Express it! Having your own voice, one of eight billion voices around today, one of the 117 billion Homo sapiens that have ever existed, is what it is to be human.
So what's stopping you? A great many factors...
Most often – memory; lost in the tumult of day-to-day concerns, that Great Thought often gets crowded out by more mundane ones, trampled on, forgotten. When you get it (or when it gets you!) – don't lose it. Notice it; savour it; roll it around your mind – and then, most importantly, capture it. In writing in your notebook, or digitally with your phone's voice-recorder app. Below: getting it down – so important. Prompted to Imagen 3.0
But another significant 'what's stopping you' is doubt; "what for?" "For whom?" "Why?" "Is this thought at all useful to anyone else?" "Is it practical?" "Is it applicable to one and all, or only to myself?" "Aren't there too many thoughts out there already?" "It's probably already been thought before by someone before me, and written in some book I've not read." And fear – fear of mockery – or even worse, fear that your precious thought will just be ignored, overlooked. You may think the thought, once out, has the power to go viral. No – that's not the point. And once those doubts and fears dilute the thought, you underestimate its value; you belittle its power. And once it's gone, forgotten, well, you say to yourself, it couldn't have been of any value anyway. "I'd have remembered it had it really been good."
But would you?
I'm often surprised when going back over my old blog posts just how good some of those thoughts actually were, and how glad I am that I managed to capture them and publish them here. Looking back, I can mull them over, and from them, life takes on purpose and direction.
If anything, my problem is not having enough of these deep, insight-laden thoughts. Noticing that sometimes they're more frequent, whilst at other times they're hardly there all, crowded out. Or simply they're not present in an empty mind. As Zen Buddhism points out, wu hsin (no-mind) is a state to be aimed for. But I actively want insights. I want revelation. I want understanding. I pray for it. But it comes when it wants to come. And when it does come, I have to be ready to catch it, define it, refine it, and share it. Don't lose it. Don't let that stray thought pass. It may speak of the intuition that comes from non-local Consciousness.
This time two years ago:
Spring magic
Building work almost done on the działka
Karczunkowska's closed again
This time eight years ago:
Little suitcase in the attic
[End of next week, it's off to Schindler's Factory in Kraków to take part in a year-long exhibition there]
This time nine years ago:
What I read each week.
This time 11 years ago:
Defending Poland, contributing to NATO
This time 13 years ago:
Balloon over Warsaw
This time 15 years ago:
Happiness, Polish-style
This time 16 years ago:
And watch the river flow...
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