Please get out your creative writing notebooks...

I was doing some writing yesterday for work. I was writing on a white, lined legal pad, with a pencil. I like to write this way best, but rarely do because the computer is usually right in front of me. One thing I found while chicken-scratching out ideas was that I now find it difficult to write as fast as my thoughts run. It occurred to me that this is one more consequence of plugged-in writing.

It's so much faster to type than to write. Thoughts can be in print almost instantly. Ideas become text in a fleeting moment - the next idea, flowing through your fingers to the screen so fast that there's no need to store it in memory, even for a moment.

This is what I found most interesting (albeit frightening); as ideas flowed in my head in sequence, I wrote the first down and by the time I got that through the lead and onto the page, I'd forgotten the next thought in line. Had to pause and recover my stream. Where was I going with that? What was the next part?

I'm always complaining that life is moving too fast. That everything is moving too fast. We do everything faster, and I'm certain that in my own little world I'm missing things because of it.

I force myself to practice slowing down. Sit. Look around. Stop. Watch. Listen. Sniff. Breathe...

Now I realize there's one more thing to practice - slowing down my own thoughts, by handwriting now and then instead of plugging in and typing. I can't help but wonder if thoughts could be fuller, have more depth if we let them linger longer, holding on to them for a few more moments before dropping them to page. The more I think about it, the more I'm certain it's so. And let me guess, this is what meditation is all about?



And on that note, here are some lovely notes on which to pen your loved ones (and other people you might have to write to):

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9642312

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9518866

Both of these talents were found on Etsy. Gotta love Etsy.