Having the sense to write the thing.

Recently finished reading one of Elizabeth Gilbert's book, now I've actually forgotten the title....but anyway it's the one she wrote about the whole "great minds think alike" theory. She'd had this great idea for a book, and somehow, when she didn't act on the idea herself, the idea leaped into someone else's brain and that person wrote a best seller with her idea. She was cool with it. She realized that the universe wants to get its shit done, you know? Not wait around for the procrastinator to get around to executing the idea. In light of that I had to wonder why my seven stories haven't leaped to other minds? I still have charge of these stories, for some absolutely insane reason since I can't manage to execute any darn thing I set my mind to. It could be that my ideas are really stupid. Maybe I'm the poor schmuck with too much life happening while I outline the stories, hardly managing to get past my index cards. Maybe I surround myself with distractions. But, and you won't believe this....and only ONE PERSON ON THIS EARTH can verify this to be the truth....and isn't it a shame to have to verify statesments....but about ten years ago I had an idea for a book I started writing. About the things that have distracted me since I was 24 years old, things which have gotten in the way of all my goals....yep, that book is still sitting in my computer, never to see the light of day, because that book is called "Food, Money and Men." Seriously. In the midst of writing this genius piece, Carl ran into the house one day..... with a book. "oh my God, Ang. You gotta stop writing. LOOK!" And he showed me the book. THE BOOK. And that is how I met Elizabeth Gilbert, whose idea was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good that it also jumped into my brain and probably a million others, but she had sense to believe in herself and write the thing. Full circle. Read her new book. Felt like the universe was speaking to me. Just do it.

I saw the Moon and the Moon saw me......

Recently on one hot night in Cuba, I was walking in Havana down a cobblestone street that led to the ocean. On that night the Super Moon was hovering what seemed like only inches above the water. I felt small in such a backdrop, the tiniest of creations on the planet. Feeling small and unimportant gave me a sense of freedom. I felt safe, but knew that the water could rise and take me away in a second, that I would be powerless against a rising tide. I got an earworm, too- the song from the musical "Carousel"- you know the one, that Billy Bigelow sang to Julie- "we're two little people, you and I, and we don't count at all." I heard that song first when I was small, and now, in Havana, small again, it came to me under the Super Moon that night. And maybe the song didn't really mean what I thought about next, but....nevertheless.... Accepting what "is"- when we're small it's easier. There is only so much we can affect. What I cannot change, what I cannot influence, what I have no control over, should not be on my mind at all. Worrying about what I cannot control or change is an earworm of another kind, a thief in the dark night, carving pathways in my brain that are driving to defeat me daily. If the waters rise, if the sun bears down, I'd better just get out of the way.