Stumbling Forward

Calvin and Hobbes

There's a Buddhist story that goes something like this:  A woman came to the Buddha concerned about the mistakes she was making in her life. She wanted to have guidance on which way to go. She spoke about stumbling and faltering.... The Buddha's suggestion was this:

"When stumbling, stumble in the right direction."  

In your own unique stumblings' I trust that you know what your right direction is -- and, hopefully how to let yourself stumble.

I am stumbling through this time of confinement and uncertainty.  And I'm doing my best to stumble forward. 

In our writing and life, and in our written stories,  knowing our horizons can help keep us focus and move our life and stories forward. We can have our stumblings' be toward our horizons, both the internal and external ones.  We can be conscious of our writing horizons, and the horizons within our stories and characters.

And, how do we walk, write and live during such times of collective trauma and uncertainty, or live in a traumatized body? 

First, we must hold a conversation and knowing of our own horizons. 
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​We need let go of the old stories of ourselves and the world, and live in appreciation of our horizons.  We are overwhelmed by our circumstances right now. So what are you giving yourself to move toward? To walk toward? In what way are you giving your readers a place to walk toward?

This time of confinement is good inner-horizon time. A time to reflect, consider who we are, what we want, or, to just be in the quiet. Stumble inward. . . Listen. Notice. Wonder. Locate that inner horizon. 

We can also hold a conversation between our inner horizons and our outer horizons. We can then create out of this conversation.

What waits at these horizons?  - We keep moving (stumbling) toward these inner and outer horizons to discover this. What waits for us there? 

Of course there won't be a final meeting place.... a completion.  The horizon is always "out there," to give us a place to move toward.  In our writings and stories we may complete a book or story but that is not the end really, just an arrival at one place, a place that should create another horizon for us (and our readers).  

It takes courage to keep walking, to keep waking. It takes courage to keep walking toward that place we never arrive at --.  While at the same time being here, being where we have arrived. Remarkable really. And this holding this place of here and there is full of uncertainty, possibility and unknowns. Rich with meaning. 

And to get through a difficult present-time experience we need our horizons. Inner and outer. 

So, as we stumble through this challenge collectively, and each on our own, may our stumbling be toward that something that calls to us from within and without.

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