I'm like a pencil;
sometimes sharp,
most days
well-rounded,
other times
dull or
occasionally
broken.
Still I write.
j.g. lewis
is a writer/photographer in Toronto.
Month: May 2022
You do things the things you do — daily tasks, unexpected duties, even pleasurable pastimes and hobbies — as you learned to do them and as you’ve always done.
For the most part it is productive, or produces results you are satisfied with. You have been successful at doing those things in such a familiar pattern that it becomes routine.
It is acceptable; in fact you’ve been recognized for your consistency.
Could it be better?
Could you further your efforts by changing it up?
Could you go a little deeper, enhance your results; even perfect your practiced imperfection by trying to do something in a different manner?
Maybe the time you spend, or time you undertake your drafts or duties, could be done at another hour?
Have you tried to write your morning pages at the end of the day, or painted your canvases an entirely different way?
Perhaps your poetry, which usually provides personal satisfaction, could advance itself with some nuanced action?
Maybe try another setting with a different view, or a switch from pencil to a keyboard for a month or two?
Don’t think of it as upsetting the balance, but rather shifting the fulcrum of your expanding talent.
Just because you’ve always done something one way, doesn’t mean there isn’t another way of doing things.
A new month.
A new notebook; fresh pages for fresh thoughts (or new concerns over continually considered contemplations), and a newly sharpened pencil too.
I find that when you write by hand, you purposefully set out the time and the place. In doing so, with pencil or pen, you are using the whole of your hand rather then just the tips of your fingers. You become more physically engaged in your writing. You can feel the writing instrument between your fingers and hear the pencil’s hearty scratch as it meanders across the page.
It is fulfilling in some small, miraculous way.
You can see the results.
You are actually watching thoughts leave your body and come to rest on the page.
Where will your thinking take you today?
05/03/2022 j.g.l.
Posted on May 2, 2022 by j.g.lewisLeave a comment
I, for all intents and purposes, don’t know where I am going. I have even less of an idea where I am coming from.
To retrace my steps, to search through journals and diaries of the past, would be taking a look in the rear-view mirror. Despite objects in the mirror being closer than they appear, it will not further my intent (as unknown and unforeseen as that may seem to be).
I will keep moving forward, a direction that is not so much chosen by me but chosen for me by the power(s) that be (intended or naturally).
Gravity holds me in my place and allows enough freedom for movement in any direction, depth, or distance chosen (by or for me). I suppose that is both my intent and my purpose.
05/02/2022 j.g.l.
