Hello there! Happy Tuesday! (Or whatever day this message finds you)
I thought I’d do something different today, and give you a peek behind the scenes - so to speak, of my creative process.
I hope you find it interesting, maybe give you some ideas, and even be inspired to share yours.
Sound good? Then LET’S GOOOOOO!!!!!
It All Starts With a Plan
(I came back and added this part the next day — June 11)
When I started writing, I created content kind of willy-nilly. I would create something on the fly and usually publish it that day. Or take a thought from my notes, and expound on that.
But as time went by, I realized I had way too many ideas, and many times good ones would get lost in the shuffle. So I had to come up with some type of plan.
I revise my plan monthly, after reviewing the previous month’s results.
This is what I came up with for June.
So as I write this post on June 10, a Tuesday, I look back at my Lesson notes from April 2, A day when I performed two meditations from A Course in Miracles.
This was the second, which I performed at 2 PM.
2:00-I am as God created Me
I am God’s Son.
Today, I lay aside
all sick illusions of myself
and let My father tell me
Who I really am.
After 5 minutes or so of meditating on this, I wrote down these words.
I am today as I was created. Created by Him with perfect intention — to know Himself through my being. Created blameless, faultless, pure. Storms may come, rain may fall, continents may collide-but in the end, nothing is changed. My gift remains — never earned, only received. My worthiness is assured, my blessings are eternal. My holiness forever complete.
Now there was a time I would simply dump these words in a post, a sort of stream-of-consciousness poem. Sometimes they were good, Most were okay, and some were pretty dreadful!
But what I’ve realized is that expecting to create a masterpiece, or at the very least something of some value by doing this, is like throwing a bunch of clay on a table, and hoping it forms into a bowl or plate.
Just like the potter needs a wheel, the poet must mold and shape his work, adding bits here, and taking away parts there, until a beautiful image is realized.
So two months later, I put my clay to the wheel and got to work.
Finding Inspiration
(I added this part as well on the 11th)
Oftentimes, I will have a poem or song lyric that gets stuck in my head and becomes a model for my poetry. And that was the case yesterday.
Every day (or at least most days) — I start my morning by listening to poetry. Some of my favorites are Emily Dickinson, William Blake, and Rumi. Yesterday I was listening to this collection, Great Love Poems, on Audible. (A service I can’t recommend highly enough for us creative types!)
As often happens, one poem sticks with me. And this time, it was the poem Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott. It’s a wonderful love poem of that eternal tale — the gallant knight who marries a fair maiden.
I won’t quote the entire work. You can find it in its entirety at the link above. But it starts like this:
O young Lochinvar is come out of the west,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;
And save his good broadsword he weapons had none,
He rode all unarm’d, and he rode all alone.
So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.
He staid not for brake, and he stopp’d not for stone,
He swam the Eske river where ford there was none;
But ere he alighted at Netherby gate,
The bride had consented, the gallant came late:
For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war,
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar…
So with the narrator’s dramatic reading in my head, I took the words I had written 2 months ago and molded them into that image — Changing them around, adding some new sentences and imagery, until I ended up with this:
Hope you like it!
(I also changed the Title and Subtitle of the post — from I Am Today as I Was Created: (Despite the lies the world hath stated) to the one you see now — Unveiling the Mystery of Creation: a peek into the mind of a poet. My hope is that it gets more people to read and helps with SEO. (Search Engine Optimization) I’d be so interested to know what you think of that move!)
I Am Today as I Was Created
I am today as I was created.
Despite the lies the world hath stated.
Created by Him with perfect intention
(Not to be judged, as some would mention)
to know Himself through my being.
to experience that but known through feeling.
Created blameless, faultless, pure.
A thing that lasts, persists, endures.
No cause to be shy, to be demure
For this knowledge is the cure
For all that sickens, all that ails
Let this wind but fill your sails.
And ponder what this truth entails.
Storms may come, rain may fall
continents may collide-but through it all
nothing changes, nothing is changed.
After time’s flame is extinguished, my gift yet remains.
Never earned, only received.
But only known as I believe.
My worthiness is assured in holy sight.
My blessings eternal as His light.
My cup runneth over, my plate replete.
My holiness remains
forever complete.
Thanks for reading, and letting me share a bit of my world!
If you have a similar process, or something completely different, I’d love to hear about it!
Dear Aaron:
Your argument exhibits the weakness of being an example of a ponfification, an example of which is the Vatican's assertion, at the time of Galileo. that the Sun orbits the Earth as claimed in the Bible.
You're reminding me Aaron, that I must revisit my Course in Miracles book. I do like what I get from you and your posts though and it's been enough but now I'm curious once again about that book on my bookshelf. Hey maybe I'll write a little about it tomorrow too in my blog post. It might not be out until Saturday though. I meet one or my favorite authors Friday and I figure I'll want to write about it on Saturday 😊♥️ two close posts in a week will be good though! 👍 thanks for always sharing such beautiful words and reminders of the beauty of the world. Appreciate your blessed writing. 😊♥️