WRITE ON

WRITING PROMPTS FOR MAY 2003

Choosing a Joyful Dance

"Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be — someday. Show me you can risk being completely at peace, truly okay with the way things are right now in this moment, and again in the next and the next and the next." — all quotes from The Dance by Oriah Mountain Dreamer unless otherwise noted

Are you willing to be completely at peace with how things are right now in your life? Why or why not?
What does this mean about changing your life? Make a list of the things you want to change about your life. Look at each one and ask yourself, "Am I willing to give up my peace of mind in order to worry or be upset about this? Pick out three things and rank them in order of importance. For each item, write down one (and only one) constructive thing you can do to help move in the direction of this change. Pick one of these ‘top three’ and write about how your life would be different if this change occurred.

"Somewhere along the road many of us have picked up the belief that to change or to have what we want, we must suffer. I remember talking to another workshop facilitator about sending out publicity for upcoming workshops and waiting for registration. ‘I realize,’ she said, ‘that I feel obligated to worry about the registration, to agonize about what I will do if the workshop doesn’t fill. When it does, I am always secretly a little convinced that it is in part because I have worried; I have paid my dues for the success.’ Some things are earned with work. But work is not suffering. Sending out brochures is work. Worrying about registration is suffering. Why do we believe we will not make changes that are good for our lives unless we are forced to do so by suffering?"

Sound familiar? Make a list of five things you wanted that you have achieved or received lately. Did suffering or worry play a part in getting them? If so, how? If not, how did they come to you? What could you substitute for worry or suffering in order to get what you want? Write about this.
Write about the value of suffering. See if you can remember where you got the idea that we need to suffer in order to change or get what we want. Were you taught that suffering was ennobling? By whom? Were there sayings your parents, grandparents, teachers, religious leaders, or other adults in your life repeated over and over that related to suffering? (For instance, my mother always told me when she was brushing out my long, tangled hair and I was whining, "It hurts to be beautiful.")

"When we believe that we are by our very nature deeply flawed — self-indulgent, sinful — our efforts to fulfill our soul’s longing become efforts to control, chastise, and improve ourselves. What if there were no need to change, no need to try to transform yourself into someone who is more compassionate, more present, more loving or wise? How would this affect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to be better?. What if the task is simply to unfold, to become who you already are in your essential nature — capable of living gently, compassionately, fully and passionately present?"

Well, what if? Write about this.