Right Hand /Left Hand

In the spirit of curiosity, I decided to do a little riff on our homework. (Maybe I am distorting things to the point where it is unrecognizable from an original exercise. It has been useful, so I just want to share.) I wrote statements about my central Wild New World question with my dominant hand, and then wrote responses to that question with my non-dominant hand. (Maybe I have conflated a bunch of suggestions, exercises, wisdom. It has been interesting to give it a shot.) I started the exercise with pen and paper then moved to computer after the first several statements and responses when it felt like the conversation between the right side of my brain and left side of my brain had taken off. I came back to the exercise after Martha’s live class on Forming. I am learning the fluidity of the concepts is one magic of the process.

RH (Right Hand) — You cannot make a living as a writer.

LH (Left Hand) — There are an absolute ton of ways to make a living as a writer in the wild new world. If you are going to play in the magic of a wide new world, that means experimenting with the breadth of joyful writing possibilities and continuing to learn and grow in that joyful space. Joy will create a life and a living. Imagination with keep you soft and safe.

RH — If you were going to make it as a writer, you would have made it already. You are 50!

LH — You constantly talk about perfect timing. You talk about the limitlessness of time, the impermanence of it all, the power of the I am not yet. If you believe in perfect timing is as powerful as Nature and includes all that, then it includes making it as a writer. It includes being open to all messages and gifts and blessings and opportunities. It includes staying curious as scar tissue forms and you forget you are star dust. It includes being wrong or lost or tired and still centering on the magic.

RH — Traditional publishing is too competitive for you to succeed.

LH — What does traditional publishing even mean in the wild new world? In a world where more voices can be heard. In a world where luck and skill and timing and relationships dance and celebrate one another. In a world where options for creating and sharing our writing are vast and generous and expanding. In a world where the shape of traditional publishing has shifted and changed to an unrecognizable form. (I am thinking of cave wall hieroglyphics and the printing press.) The only limit to success is our imagination. In a wild new world, competition looks more like rage to master. We are asked to turn comparison and judgement into joy.

RH — You do not have the hustle or drive to get your books published.

LH — Wild new world hustle and drive feel different to me. Wild new world hustle and drive are inextricably linked with joy and imagination. Wild new world hustle and drive speak the languages of what if, why not, and not yet. Wild new world hustle and drive view failure as the path to magic. Wild new world hustle and drive create and inspire. Wild new world hustle and drive invite and extend.

RH — Nobody wants to hear what you have to say.

LH — Your voice is unique and meant to be shared in a wide new world. That is the beauty of the wild new world. A wide new world — one built on wordlessness and oneness and imagination — is big enough for it all. In wordlessness, something beyond words connects us. That is what everyone wants to hear. If we all are one, there is no separation. Guided by imagination, thoughts are new. Everyone wants to hear magic.

RH — Others have said what you want to say in much better ways.

LH — There is no room for comparison and judgement in the wild new world. There is only room for curiosity and growth. There is only room for soft edges and open minds. There is only room for ebb and flow and falling apart and back together. There is only room for light and relief. When you are tired, rest. When you are hungry, eat. When you are lonely, connect. When you are angry, breathe. In doing those things you will know magic and what you most deeply want to say.

RH — You have given half effort to both writing and finding a “real” job FOR YEARS.

LH — The wide new world is all about full effort in the magic.

RH — You have been blogging into the silence — doing the same thing expecting different results — FOR YEARS.

LH — The wide new world is all about imagining new things and new results. Magic happens in the joy between results.

RH — You don’t know the difference between expecting too much from your writing (and taking the magic away) and not expecting anything (and languishing in existential dread and inertia and loneliness).

LH — How about you expect magic from your writing and move toward the magic and when you are there simply play? And while you play, the voice sings, the story emerges, the writing happens, the magic builds.