Until We Are Called Upon To Rise - SubStack New Year 2024

Faith, Persistence, Credibility and Patience

HOW DO WE KNOW HOW TO BE A WRITER?

We simply do not know how - other than - like many other things it is present - present in our ability as humans to think, speak, create - and communicate.

But one thing is for certain we will never know how to be a writer unless we begin to write.

“We never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Our statures touch the skies.

The heroism we recite
Would be a daily thing,
Did not ourselves the cubits warp
For fear to be a king.”

―Emily Dickinson

When I first began to write on SubStack I hadn’t spent time on developing writing.

Writing - sitting and putting thoughts together - seemed boring.

Boring to develop my own thoughts into works when there were so many who had always - and who would always - be inspiring to read.

I preferred real life action and reading the work of others far more than I cared to develop my own writing.

But once I met these times - times which have challenged me to rise to a worthwhile occasion - only then did I seriously begin.

When SubStack wrote the writer’s prompt for this new year of 2024 the fragment of Emily Dickinson’s poem came to mind.

Because the writers we admire come to haunt us with the power of their words and to echo in our minds and souls as we develop the power of our own voice.

I always believed it was rather selfish - self-centered maybe - to write.

That is until I was given the recognition that we are not the doers or the architects.

There is another force in charge here.

My own life - and anything I myself, or any of us, may think or write or speak - comes from a far higher authority.

Although we may believe we are living a petty little circumscribed life of no consequence - we could not be more wrong.

We are all given the chance to enter the realm of the hero or heroine - to embark on the hero’s journey Joseph Campbell describes.

Because in the final analysis we are simply not in charge here.

“The force that through the green fuse drives the flower”

Dylan Thomas

does not exist solely in the great mind of Dylan Thomas.

The great force which drives the universe - which creates us all and which is the architect of all - exists because it is freely given.

And freely given we have a chance to see life - and certainly writing and art - as the living mind of the architect of the universe in action.

We are part of an endless pageant of the living mind of the universe. The least we can do is help give voice to it.

My heartfelt thanks to all who participate here - all the readers and commenters and writers - and to those who run the SubStack platform and keep the lights on in San Francisco - my hometown - you are valued and you all make an immense difference.

Make 2024 the most remarkable year ever!

“Only from the heart can you touch the sky”

Rumi