Month: April 2018

Unbecoming a Writer

A Wondering Wanderer2 Comments

A beginner on a creative journey, I too have faced a similar situation – unfinished drafts and discarded ideas, only because they were not as “perfect” as they could be. What good is perfection, if it leaves you paralyzed? A nice post I found useful in reminding me to write for the right reason! 🙂

MistressoftheInk's avatarInkBlots and IceBergs

There was a time, not too long ago, when I couldn’t have imagined calling myself a writer—and by “writer,” I mean the kind that gets paid to do work that’s actually published in print and credited through a byline. During that time, I did write, but I only wrote either for personal reasons (in a private journal or this blog), or for the ghostwriting assignments I took as a freelance web content writer.

During that time, I was but a girl who wrote and loved writing, but nothing more than that. And I was quite happy with how things were—I loved my craft, and it loved me back.

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And then the unthinkable happened.

The opportunity came for me to get published in this month’s issue of a national teen girls magazine, the glossy kind I liked to feel with my fingers, the smell of which I was addicted to, the…

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Things Swept Off In The Breeze…

A Wondering Wanderer3 Comments

Only those in tune with nature seem to pick up on the energy in wind. All sorts of things get swept off in the breeze – ghosts, pieces of soul, voices unsung, voices repressed, love uncherished, and a thousands galore of spiritual ether.

– Terri Guillemets

Nice quote by Terri Guillemets! I totally agree with her on this – there indeed is a certain energy in the wind, an energy separate from the physical energy of the motion of the wind particles. This other “energy” is something different, something difficult to describe, something you either feel or you don’t, something magical.

I feel that this energy knows me. Intimately. It knows how to reach deep down inside and pull me up, despite all that I may be buried under. I find few things as soothing to the soul as a stroll on a breezy night (or day even, as long as it’s not hot). Despite all that may be going on in my life, all the things that may be weighing on my mind at that moment, it transports me far away from them. In that instant, it’s just me and the wind, talking, playing, just being.

ghosts, pieces of soul, voices unsung, voices repressed, love uncherished

So much said in so few words! This is the part of the quote that really hits home for me. I’m finding it difficult to put my feelings and thoughts about them into words. But let me still take a stab: Taken individually, these words may sound melancholic, but in the overall context of the quote, they transform into something warm-and-fuzzy, something beautiful. I don’t know what other words to use, or how else to describe the emotions they trigger, but hopefully these would give you an idea. A brilliant collection of words, woven together even more brilliantly.

Truly, words are just noises and smudges; it is how we use them that gives them their immense power.  And Terri here has done an amazing job at that!

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Note: On some sites, this quote is attributed to a “Drew Sirtors”, about whom I couldn’t find any other piece of information anywhere! I don’t know if it’s a pen name for Terri Guillemets or what other reason there could be for this ambiguity. What’s even more surprising is that this is not a one-off quote by Drew – there’s another popular quote attributed to him/her, but there’s no information at all on this person! Anyways, the point is – I’m not sure to whom this quote actually belongs, but I’ve attributed it above to Terri since it was originally attributed to her the first time I came across it, and also because there seem to be more attributions to her online, than to Drew. If you have any information on the true origin of the quote, please do share!

Photo Credit: Unsplash and Canva

The Importance Of Life’s “Center”

A Wondering Wanderer5 Comments

Recently, I was the victim of one of life’s conspiracies to teach me a lesson. And although I had heard others talk about that lesson before, I had never fully realized its value and wisdom until life shoved it in my face.

And that lesson was the importance of finding a “center” in my life.

By “center” I mean something that one would love to be associated with in whatever way they can. It can be the people in one’s life, the work they do, an activity they like to engage in, or even something as abstract as a thought. The key thing is that nothing about the “center” feels like an inconvenience; just the mere thought of it should be able to bring one immediate calm and happiness.

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