We have this life. We live it day by day. It passes quickly. Sometimes not quickly enough- we get despondent, sullen, downcast. Those are good words. In those slow moments something might appear- a chance to fall through our blistering fast-paced lives to the other side, where we can turn around and view ourselves, take a curious interest. Underneath everything we long to know ourselves. We wouldn’t know it though by the way we act- chugging down another whiskey, not listening to our daughter at breakfast, going sixty in a twenty zone. Reaching to get away; longing to come home. In writing, in sitting, in slow walking, a flash, a moment appears when we fall through and what we are fighting, running from, struggling with becomes open, luminous- or, even better, not a problem, just what it is. Look for those small openings.
~ Natalie Goldberg
Natalie Goldberg, 65, is an American popular New Age author, speaker, teacher and painter. She is best known for a series of books which explore and practice writing as Zen practice. Her 1986 book Writing Down the Bones sold over a million copies and is considered an influential work on the craft of writing. Her 2013 book, The True Secret of Writing, is a follow-up to that work. Goldberg has studied Zen Buddhism for more than thirty years. She has been teaching seminars in writing as a practice for the last thirty years. People from around the world attend her life-changing workshops and she has earned a reputation as a great teacher. The Oprah Winfrey Show sent a film crew to spend the day with Natalie for a segment on Spirituality that covered her writing, teaching, painting, and walking meditation. (Sources: Wiki & NatalieGoldberg.com)
Credits: Quote – Thank you makebelieveboutique.com. Photograph: kripalu.org
Such an engaging woman. “Writing Down The Bones” is a longtime favorite…..
I’m reading down the comments, could I be the only one that’s never heard of her or read her book? So, I take it you recommend the book for me?
I think you would enjoy it, David. It’s a book about “freeing the writer within.” In the same vein, I love Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird.”
she is my mentor and muse though she does not know it
You too! Wonder, she has quite a fan club based on these comments.
Those spaces in between – the more they are noticed, the more it bring me back to that which really matters.
Yes!
Reblogged this on Wholeheartedness.
Thanks for sharing Todd
“Those small openings”…are precious moments of life, yes.
Pulse rate slows, it gets quiet, and voila!
Reblogged this on The Write Idea.
Thanks for sharing Bill
“Writing Down the Bones” changed my life. I thought I was *so* cool to live in Minneapolis at the same time she did.
Another fan. I must get the book on my reading list. Thanks Sandy Sue
Very well written! I am with you David I have never heard of her.
They’ll be a run on her books on Amazon!
Me, either. I have now. Thank you!
My pleasure Carolann
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