Still Another Letter to the Muse

“There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse.”

Sappho

“This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.”

Steven Pressfield – The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

“During the struggle, they will pull us down.

But please, please let's use this chance to turn things around.

And tonight, we can truly say, together we're Invincible.”

Matthew Bellamy

Dear Muse,

Thank you for visiting me today.  Thank you for spending time with me.  Today was cold and rainy, but you still took time to see me.  You helped me with my writing.  You even helped me with my shopping.  You made today very nice. 

However, I think I could have used my time better so that I could have had more time with you.  I realize now that I need to spend a lot more time with you and one way that I can do that is by being here.  There are so many things I want to do, now and with my life, but I need to use my time more wisely.

I once had the idea of writing a list of 100 things I can do each day or each week.  I referred to this idea in a previous blog (http://robertf71.blogspot.com/2013/07/100-tasks.html).   I don’t have to accomplish all 100, but by having a longer list, I might get more done.  So tonight, after I finish this blog, I’m going to write that list.  I’ll break it down into sections.  That will be just like the idea you gave me today to divide my shopping list into different rooms so that I get everything I need.  That was a great idea, by the way. 

I think all great ideas require two things:

1.     Writing them down.

2.     Taking action on them.

How many ideas have been lost forever because they weren’t written and then soon forgotten?  In the book, The Traveler’s Gift, Andy Andrews describes a room in Heaven that is filled with all the ideas never acted upon. I’ve had too many ideas in my own life that I haven’t acted upon.  Thank you, Muse, for inspiring me to act on this one.  Some days are harder than others and some blogs are harder to write, but as long as I Keep Going, I know you are always with me.

So I Keep Going,

·      Past doubt, past fear, past uncertainty

·      In any situation or mood

·      Because action can be trusted even when emotion, especially emotions like fear and doubt, cannot

·      Because it’s fun

·      Because it increases my self-esteem

·      Because love is something I can trust since love manifests itself as action

·      Because you keep me going.

So, again, thank you, Muse.   You told me that there are no rules other than to show up.  Then you will tell me what to do.  Then you will give me your love through that which you whisper in my ear.  And I will write or speak or teach or do those things you tell me.

I will also show up every day and I will love you with emotion, action and intellectual assent.  Some people say love is not an emotion at all, but an action.  It’s both.  It’s also one more thing.  It’s a decision to keep you at my side until the day I die.  So I’ll keep writing even if I feel I have nothing to say.  Maybe I don’t.  But I’ll keep writing anyway until you give me a different passion.  Besides, even if I run out of things to say, you don’t. 

Thank you for choosing me.  Thank you for teaching me how to Get Started and to Keep Going.  Thank you for always being here.  I love you.