Writing is an act of affirmation. It’s an act of liberation, of freedom. In writing you're exercising your right to your own mind, you're singing your own special song. This week’s episode is about some of the things I’ve discovered, usually to my surprise, in my adventures and explorations with writing. 

One of the amazing things about writing is that you can start it, right here, right now. And the rest of your life comes with you. When you start to write down your life and things of it, when you get it out of your head and bring it to another place, you start to see and experience your life in a completely different way. You have thoughts, ideas, and feelings, connections you never imagined you had. Writing them down is the start of all that journey of adventure. 

Most of us have a huge desire to make meaning of this, our amazing life. This is something each of us has to do for ourselves. We’re not going to find the meaning of our own unique life outside of ourselves, that’s like looking for water on the moon, as the saying goes. For sure there are lots of influences in the world that stimulate and inspire, provoke us, even. And, also for sure, there are lots of people willing to tell us what it all means for us. But the process of finding meaning in our own unique life and creating meaning for ourselves is an internal effort. It’s something we can only work out and discover ourself. No one else can tell us what is authentically meaningful for us.

One of our uniquely human gifts is that we can create meaning from the things we look at and think about. Think about this list, for instance - a chair, a bench, a stool, a recliner, an armoire, a bean bag, a log, a small wall, an upturned bucket. Only we can look at this list and think of and relate to it the concept of “a seat” - somewhere to sit - to them all. Or, as an example I remember from my own life, you could be renting a small room on the fifth floor of an old apartment building, in a less desirable part or town, with no elevator and a shared bathroom. You can think you’re in a dingy room in a back street because you don’t make enough money. Or you can think you're out there taking risks, living life on the edge of adventure. Or you can think both at different, or even the same, times. Life is a choice for us. 

I remember reading two different books about the experience of small farmers in Vermont and Wyoming. There are lots of similarities in their experiences – it’s hard work, you’re not doing it to get rich, and both places have ferocious weather, often for months at a time. The books were both memorable but for different reasons. One made you laugh quite often; the other was gripping but grim. Out of similar materials two different creations emerged. I’m not saying one was better or worse than the other, they were both great reads, but the writers had different perspectives on what were similar experiences and got different meanings from them. 

Writing is one of the best ways I've found to find and create meaning in my life. Don’t you just dislike being asked questions like - “So, what’s really important to you about how you live?” “What matters most to you in your life?” “What motivates you?” Especially when you’re standing around someone’s kitchen or living room and they’re in the course of a conversation where things like “How was the drive?” and usually some comments on the weather are also part of it. I know I do. All the questions become equivalent when asked in circumstances like that I think - they’re equally superficial and, I feel, equally counterfeit. 

And, I also think we all have questions like that. Whether we feel them, which most of us do I think, or verbalize them in some way, which is rarer, I think they lurk inside us anyway. When you write about these questions and feelings you get to make up the answers - on a blank page – literally – day by day. What’s most important to you? What fills you up? What nourishes you? What gets your blood going? All of this is who you are right now, what you value. All great places to start writing from. It's a point in time to start from. Your responses are not set in stone. You can make them up again tomorrow. And when one of these kinds of questions grab you they’re the sparkle you bring to the point where your pen is about to meet the paper or your finger is about to press the key. 

When you're most alive, who are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? What’s happening around you at that moment? What do you really want in your very own life? All of this becomes part of the writing adventure. And, getting thoughts, feelings, ideas out of your head and onto your page clears the way for new and different experiences to be ruminated on and distilled in your wonderful mind. We can only have one experience at a time. Writing helps clear the way for new and different experiences.

Writing is a way to have a creative experience every day, to be creative every day. Every morning I’m curious to see what’s going to come out of my pen. To see where my thinking on any topic is going to end up when I start following one thought after another on the page. This is especially true on mornings when the dark moments fall. Writing lightens my mood, it's a positive, enhancing action and experience that hasn’t failed me yet. 

I haven’t yet got to the end of my thinking on any topic or exhausted that wondrous realm from which creativity springs – not even close. There’s always a next, another step to take. 

I believe that the drive to be creative, to fulfill our creative impulse, is there in us all. It's different from the biological drives we have but just as real. And it serves a purpose as important for us as breathing, or moving, or eating do. It seems and feels to me that drawing lines on a blank sheet of paper that somehow come together to create meaning - that act of creating something from nothing - of bringing something new and totally unique into the world at that moment - is serving that creative purpose both without and within.

There is emerging research that shows that people with purpose live longer and are less prone to the ravages of aging disease. See the links in the RESOURCES section at the bottom of this page. Basically, the results indicate that a stronger purpose in life is associated with decreased mortality. Greater purpose in life is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and cognitive impairment in older persons.

Writing definitely adds purpose to my life. I don’t think you need to have a vision or to be in pursuit of a quest or a mission, to have a purposeful life. Life itself is enough of a quest if you're living it fully, enjoying what it brings along, looking for the meaning, seeing the truth in it. I like the image of the circle of life. What that says to me is that there are three hundred and sixty degrees in a life. I’m going to complete my circle at some point. But, as long as I’m still alive I still have degrees to complete, things to learn. My circle is not complete as long as I'm still alive and curious, pursuing meaning and understanding. 

So the question or challenge every day for me then becomes what am I willing to do in order to honor that, in order to fulfill that potential? And what I’ve found is that it’s all very close, very accessible, if I’m willing to step out and make the effort. Writing down a few thoughts every day enhances my spirits and my day, makes me feel I have started the day on purpose. 

So, I’m going to close this week’s episode with an example of my writing exercise from this week. As always I’ll be throwing it out after that. I’m not collecting, I’m exercising. And as always, I’m sharing it to show how simple this powerful habit of writing to exercise your mind can be. This is the kind of writing that helps me start the day feeling stimulated mentally, like a powerful creator, feeling on purpose, fulfilled. I wrote this the other morning as I sat writing while looking at the tiny ornamental pod we have in the backyard. It’s about the size of the top of one of those picnic tables you find in parks everywhere. 

Tiny frogs, little bigger than a thumbnail, spawn here every year. Thousands of them. Despite their size, during mating season the sound is deafening. When they’re in full flow we have to close the windows on that side of the house if we want to have a conversation. When you do go to close the window and they hear you fiddling with the handle, the sound ceases, immediately. It gradually resumes when the noise of your movement stops. Some of the boys used to play with this phenomenon to conduct a rising and falling frog chorus.

If you listen while they’re in full frenzy you can’t hear anything else, you can’t even think but you pick up on the excitement that is creating this stadium-sized uproar. The excitement, the frenzy, is contagious. It cheers you up. It puts a smile on your face. It makes you laugh. It sends you looking for your partner. It creates all sorts of possibilities. 

Who could imagine such a small concentration of small frogs could have such a large range of impact?

In season there must be thousands of tadpoles in the water. How many make it to froghood? I don't know. I'm sure there’s a metric but right now the metric is not the message. I'm sure the birds in the garden eat their fill of tadpoles and the racoons and the occasional skunk. And I know the dogs eat some of them when they drink from the pond. We discourage this when we see it but, of course, we don't always see it. 

And then where do they go when they mature? Not many seem to stay in or near the pond. We find the odd one here and there in nooks and crannies around the place but I guess the majority travel further afield. And yet year after year enough of them make their way back to perform this concert and create the next chorus.

And that was it. And when I was done, I went on to my day feeling cheerier and lighter as a result. I can’t recommend it enough.
Good fortune to anyone giving it a go.

RESOURCES:

Association Between Life Purpose and Mortality Among US Adults Older Than 50 Years - The Journal of the American Medical Association

Effect of a Purpose in Life on Risk of Incident Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Community-Dwelling Older Persons - National Library of Medicine