Thoughts on the Writing Life

The Art of Disappearing

"Walk around feeling like a leaf. Know you could tumble any second. Then decide what to do with your time."

-NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

-original photo by shamash

Fall 2004 "Remembrance Day"

Notes on Disappearing: How to spend my time?

I wish I could be five people:

1. the socialite, out at all the functions
2. the jock, working out every day
3. the spiritual seeker, meditating and hanging out at the Kali temple, the Chinese temple, and the golden pagodas here in this city somewhere in Asia,
4. the decent teacher / student, ready with kick-ass lesson plans, correcting those essays, and writing her master's thesis and
5. the writer, who's writing every day, cranking out those short stories, showing up at the page

But, I'm not five people.

I'm one.

And finding the time to balance all that I would like to do is next to impossible.

When do I find time to write? With one of my first pieces of non-fiction to be published in a book coming out in a few weeks (horray!, but I hate the cover), I could kick myself for not making writing my priority. I'm too busy sculling, correcting papers, writing my thesis, organizing my desk drawers, paying the bills, and yes: blogging!!!

Tomorrow I have a deadline. And I'm not going to meet it.

I'm such a schmuck. So, I'm going to do two things:

1. I'm going to re-read the THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AUTHORS. (Thanks, Lynn, for the link!)
2. I'm going into hermit phase. I've done it before.

This beautiful poem by Naomi Shihab Nye will be my mantra:

The Art of Disappearing.

When they say Don't I know you? say no.
When they invite you to the party
remember what parties are like
before answering.
Someone telling you in a loud voice
they once wrote a poem. Greasy sausage balls on a paper plate.
Then reply.
If they say we should get together.
say why? It's not that you don't love them any more.
You're trying to remember something
too important to forget.
Trees.
The monastery bell at twilight.
Tell them you have a new project.
It will never be finished. When someone recognizes you in a grocery store

nod briefly and become a cabbage.
When someone you haven't seen in ten years
appears at the door,
don't start singing him all your new songs.
You will never catch up.
Walk around feeling like a leaf. Know you could tumble any second.

Then decide what to do with your time.

NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

Comments

[moon]

what is the book your book about???
you just mentioned it like that...:)

[shamash]

Moon:
For various reasons, I want to remain anonymous at this blog.

However, I'll email you the name of the book when it hits the shelves. (It's available from the publisher, but soon will be on Amazon.com) The book is a collection of stories of Americans living abroad, and I write about my journey: a small-town girl who longs for distant lands and how she ends up living in (and loving!) Asia.

I'm very, very excited about this!
(ps I love your blog!)

[bluest eyes]

walking around feeling like a leaf feels great: being a hermit, a party-girl, a student, a teacher, a world-saver,a poet (wrting a book is in my mind since I first travelled to Asia, but there are always so many "buts" - so I'm very excited about YOUR book!)

How about a night to remember - and to write about?

[shamash]

Ah.....
A night to remember.
There are so MANY of them, and one of the best being One Night in Bangkok. Oh, the memories!

Here's memorable nights, and writing about them.

I await YOUR novel, Bluest Eyes!

[Lamamamajama]

Hey, You kind of are like five peole though, just different ones come out at different times. It looks like you are taking Bilal's advice of not meeting deadlines, hoorah!
Feeling like I want to come visit and travel around with you. Miss you.

[shamash]

LMJ: Ah, yes. Dear Bilal, whose advise changed my life. :-) Miss you, too.

[Michiel]

Cool, notify us when you publish, yes?

On a whole different note, I've been collecting online courseware from universities recently, I thought you might be interested being a teacher and all ;)

Check this out:
http://del.icio.us/acidzebra/learning?setcount=100

All the free MIT, harvard, princeton, BBC and other courses, lectures, videos, interviews and god knows what else. Lots of interesting stuff. Have fun :)

[Lynn Raye Harris]

Glad you liked that article. :) I find it helps to reread it from time to time too.

[Terry]

Oooh, email me too, please. Do you remain anonymous in the book? If so, I'd love to put up a note about it.

[Tish]

Congrats on the publishing! that's great! I, too, would like to know the pub, if you're comfortable with that....

balancing the time to be everyone we want to be is probably the hardest thing in the world! and our world rarely allows us more than one life/identity. I don't know about you, but I know I confuse the heck out of people with all the stuff I've done...and confuse myself even more when it hits me that I've done something consistenly over a period of time but never thought it would mean anything (happened recently when I realized I've spent 7 years goofing around with social software! yikes!) :-) T.