Well, after thinking about this for awhile, I have come to the conclusion that the below portion of the book Illusions is very applicable. I have decided, that I’m taking a break from blogging and I’m going to pursue other interests out here in the world now!
199 blogs, three years.
An excerpt called “the river” from one of my favorite books – Illusions by Richard Bach.
Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all — young and old, rich and poor, good and evil — the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.
Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current was what each had learned from birth.
But one creature said at last, “I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.”
The other creatures laughed and said, “Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed against the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!”
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.
Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, “See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the messiah, come to save us all!”
And the one carried in the current said, “I am no more messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.”
But they cried the more, “Savior!” all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a savior.
This has been MUCH fun, the last couple years and what I learned is that chasing a dream is definitely a good thing. I wanted to be a writer more than anything growing up, and while nothing ever turns out the way you think, it turned out that a website was my vehicle of expression, to say what I had to say – and it RULES!
I wanted to thank all the readers and friends from around the world who take the time every day to read these blogs and visit the website. I have been told, that this site contains a couple college courses worth of material, and MAYBE even a PhD course or two. Which, for someone who thought what he had to say wasn’t worth much, is a very great compliment.
Readers from over 57 countries follow this site and all I can think of to say is thank you! It is a real pleasure to know all of you, and I want to thank all the writers who have contributed their work here on the site too – and a special shout out to Blow Torch Lady, who has written for the site, and was my editor in the beginning.
To the fellow travelers and writers and artists out there who read the site, I’d like to leave you with this excerpt from the Moon and Six Pence. Keep on, keeping on!
Wandering and the Moon and Sixpence…
This entry is a shout out to all my fellow wanderers out there.
I was sitting here this morning thinking about my last post re: going into the wilderness, and it made me think about my time so far as a wanderer. There’s all kinds of things I could say about it, but I realized it might just be time to share one of my favorite excerpts which articulates the subject better than just about anything I’ve seen. I don’t just mean wandering on a trip or vacation, I mean finding your way home through life. This is by W. Somerset Maugham, and it is called The Moon and Sixpence.
“I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest.”
Personally, I wish I had found this excerpt years ago because it would have helped me to understand myself far better and far more quickly than I did. Some would say the mileage of experience is necessary and knowing it before you are out of the gate is not good. But on this one, I think, having some kind of a road map for these feelings of wanting to wander is helpful. If for nothing else, than to take it to the next level of wandering!
So, that’s about what I know for now. I’m going to leave the site up – its paid for for a year, and I may well do the occasional random blog – but, I think that I’m going to pursue podcasting next and give that a try! I don’t have any names or titles for what is coming next – I guess I’ll have to start all over again on a new journey until a following is built, and people hear about it. Which, I think is going to take a while. And, that’s a good thing I think, because I can experiment and get better before things hopefully grow.
So again – thank you for reading, and I hope that everyone is well. As always, please feel free to leave a comment in the box below, and have a great day out there – wherever you may be in the world!
Thank you and Best Regards to all.
Jonathan, aka The Head Blind Man.
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