Writers Write: Your Comments are Part of Your Writing Mosaic

I take thirty words to say what genius poets and great thinkers can say in a heartbeat! I think that’s why I’m so drawn to quotes. Some have a kind of distilled essence that comes from having been lovingly shared and passed around for years, like a worn wedding ring or a sea tossed pebble. ~Janice  (in a comments box somewhere…)

Are you tired? Do you regularly find yourself wondering where you’re going to find the inspiration for your posts? Maybe be you don’t realise that your comments on other blogs  - and the replies you write in your own comments boxes – contain gems, the seeds of whole posts. They’re your spontaneous writing, your honest, authentic, initial responses to the writing prompts that are other people’s ideas and feelings.

I’ve had beautiful comments in the comment boxes here, pieces of writing that make the boxes a blog within a blog. Some blogs hint that people shouldn’t write long comments because it’s not good netiquette; when I’ve emailed bloggers to check, every single one has told me they’re touched to see that their posts have moved someone to say more than “Great post!” It depends on which blogs you visit. That’s the key. Go where you love the work, enjoy the person and feel appreciated. That way, the comments, whether they’re a few words or a paragraph, will flow unbidden and reveal the real you, piece by piece, like an online jigsaw coming together.

One of the reasons I get tired is that I enjoy reading my favourite blogs and checking out new sites, but I also like to comment if something moves me or inspires me. That takes time, but writers write and it’s all a jigsaw. We learn as much about ourselves from the comments we write as others learn about us. And it’s all practice. Here are some of the comments that gushed and flowed out of me, unedited, on other people’s blogs this week alone.

I have some rebellious advice for you on meditation, for those days when you don’t feel like it. As you’re lying in bed in the morning, rotate your foot and think how lucky you are that it moves. Raise your leg a few inches and focus on how good it feels to have that power. Wiggle your fingers and be glad you can. Snuggle your face into the pillow and feel the warmth of it, its softness on your face. When you have a shower, enjoy the refreshing sensation and heat of the water and the fragrance of the soap, the miracle that is your body as it’s standing there, functioning all by itself without you telling it what it has to do to stay alive. When you eat breakfast, savour every mouthful, the first rush of coffee, each texture and the taste of every mouthful.

Being present in everything you do, with no rush towards ‘doing it right’ turns your whole life into one glorious, living breathing meditation. You’re doing great, Jay. The blogs you choose to follow and support are like a daily meditation practice, too. So is the writing you do. Inspiration comes in the spaces between our words just like the silence between the thoughts gradually deepens in meditation.

(To Jay, over at Porsidan.)

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Peace in individual hearts leads to peace in our families. Peace in familes and we have peace in towns and villages. Peaceful towns, peaceful countries and so it goes. It all starts with each individual loving themselves enough and making their own happiness their own responsibility. We can all help each other, but in the end, it’s up to us to love ourselves enough. Otherwise, it would make no sense for major religions to urge that we love others as we love ourselves.

(To Nadia, over at Happy Lotus.)

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I don’t have methods, but I’ve recognised that I’m old enough and brave enough to be vulnerable, to be myself, faults and all. I’m lyrical – many hate it – but that’s who I am. I was a singer/songwriter and my passion for lyrics runs deep. I can write in many styles and capture daily speech and dialogue, but I simply accept that there are times when it’s a relief to let my heart and soul overflow in language you rarely find spoken out loud. I listen to the words I love – work by other writers, songs, poetry, things my kids say – and ask myself why and how they touched me. I try to write with awareness and presence, authenticity and a genuine desire to connect, support and inspire.

(To Sean and Dave, over at Collective Inkwell.)

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As I’m becoming more and more aware of how precious my time is, and of how the kids are getting older and empty nest years aren’t that far off, it’s becoming easier to say no. I don’t want to waste a minute of the time I could be spending with them. That’s why I’m struggling with blogging; I can see lots of danger signs of being enticed away from my real life in the present.

(To Marc, over at Daily Aikido.)

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I love sticking my face right inside roses after the rain when there’s still raindrops in them, but I’ve never had much success growing roses myself. We have a lot of rhododendrons here in Scotland, but the fragrance of roses is something else.

(To Vered, over at Mom Grind.)

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What a beautiful, powerful address! A reminder that we may have atoms and cells, but we’re all made of stardust and breathe in all of human life with each breath. We are the earth, which makes our neglect, savagery and willful destruction so much more astonishing.

(To Mary, over at Goodlife Zen.)

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The key to simplicity – to a happy, clean, clear, simple, abundant life – is to know yourself, know what you value, know what you want, know the minimum you need.

 (To Leo, guest posting over at Eric’s Motivate Thyself.)

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Have you had a good look at your comments on other blogs recently; the replies in your own? Try cutting and pasting a week’s worth into a document to see what your online jigsaw looks like. Are there any seeds of spontaneity there that you could build whole posts from?