I would like to beg you dear Sir, as
well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to
try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books
written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could
not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the
point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far
in the future, you will gradually, without
even noticing it, live your way into the answer. - Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903 in Letters to a Young Poet
Autumn brings a time of vibrance and
change. Glimmers of orange, crimson, magenta, and flashes of gold permeate the
days. As shades of blue search for a turn, gray flannel consumes the clouds.
Landscapes arouse with lightning, thunder and showers. Scents of cinnamon and
cider fill the air along with aromas of wood smoke from chimneys. The
breeze tastes of cinders and promise.
Nature’s multiple personality during
the fall season reminds us to consider possible changes and pursue, rather than
judge, our writing.
It becomes a time to explore and pile
questions upon questions instead of a search for answers. A pondering of
“…and then what” provides possibilities. We mine for more understanding
if we permit the questions to climb upon one another. They
will wrestle for opportunities we have not considered.
Consider these ten questions. They
will spark others as you write to them. Respond only with more questions. See
what happens.
l. How would you answer Rilke’s
question:
". . . ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I
write?"
2. How are you with your
writing?
3. What biases affect your
writing? The best way to combat biases involves recognizing their
existence. Will you list and write to them?
4. What amuses you about your
writing?
5. How do you write about what
feels wrong?
6. Do you celebrate your
strengths in writing? In what ways?
7. How do you provide
constructive feedback for your writing? If not, who does?
8. If you considered your
heart’s desire about your writing, what would it involve?
9. What do you write away from?
How can you bring it closer to you?
10. What’s the greatest question your
writing nudges in you?
Take time to involve yourself with the questioning process.
