Writing with Purpose

I suppose this post's title is an invitation to disaster.

What can I possibly mean by 'writing with purpose'? And shouldn't my blog post be a more or less perfect example of finish and poise?

Perhaps. But also perhaps not.

Surely the attempt to write something meaningful, something true, something really true, is connected not so much to what we say, nor the way we choose to say it, but rather is linked to our innate, deep-seated capacity for truly listening.

I believe we all have this capacity, this potential. It's just a question of learning to unearth it.

Listening is something we usually think of in relation to conversations with others, but in a writing and creative sense, listening is more about reaching into a deeper space, through the interference of our own superficial thoughts and quietly on, and then out, into the great ocean-like unseen, where the universe is not really perceived by sight at all, but by an inner sense (isn't there something amazing--it might even be called synchrony--that 'inner sense' echoes the word innocence? And innocence is a kind of tuning out the superficiality associated with emotional defensiveness. It seems to encourage openness, the readiness to receive.)

This kind of inner sense (or innocent) listening can, and in my experience has and will, bring us into gentle contact with what feels akin to a great reservoir of Being, sheer energy or creative force. And will on condition that we learn to trustingly surrender to its omniscience. I would suggest this experience can be one of the ways we learn a little more about God.

I think I should acknowledge the influence of two great Creatives as their work has helped me to more successfully apprehend this awareness. I think if you'll read their work, you'll see what I mean.

The writers (and their superb books) are:

Dorothea Brande (author of Becoming a Writer)

Julia Cameron (author of The Artist's Way)

So... writing with purpose? It's all about learning to listen.