This week, I’m offering a series of posts on writing – ones I’ve written before, new ones yet unseen, anything and everything that reminds you of just how powerful the act of writing is – whether you have any aspirations of ever being a writer…or not.
Elegance and Crudeness: I Am Writing Today
[Written February, 2013]
Despite all obstacles placed in my way, many of which I erected myself, I am
writing today.
I am writing about the Divine Feminine. My history in regards to such, misconceptions that abound, and ways in which She is experienced both within and without. I am writing about my own religious tradition and the ways in which even the uttering of Her name would have well been understood as straight from the pit of hell. I am writing about the ways in which that has confused me for so many years. And I am writing about how my movement toward Her has invited me into expansiveness, empowerment, and faith beyond-compare.
As I write, I have been reflecting on words spoken by artist and activist Callahan McDonough:
“I look for that balance of elegance and crudeness in my work. My desire is for my work to be experienced out in the world, to make a difference that touches people’s lives.”
Yes, this.
There is a balance of both elegance and crudeness in writing. Even more, in life. When I allow for both, I then extend myself grace and forgiveness. When I allow for both, I am compelled to higher levels of creativity without incessant second-guessing. When I allow for both, I find myself in a place where darkness does not overcome light, nor does shadow (or to use Steven Pressfield’s term, resistance) overwhelm me.
I am writing today. About some of the hardest things: my own story, my own doubts, my own fears. But in each, allowing confidence and doubt, hope and despair, and yes, elegance and crudeness; the jumble of emotions, talents, insecurities, and stories that are me.
Oh, that we would live our lives in such a place: aware of the elegance and crudeness innate in us all – allowing for both and
calling forth ever-more. What might we yet create? What might we yet imagine? What might we yet birth?
Yes, this: birth. The primary and original place in which elegance and crudeness coexist. The primary and original place in which women bring forth their innate and particular power.
The primary and original place in which miracles occur and the Divine Feminine makes herself known. The primary and original place in which the Divine is made manifest in our world – over and over again. Elegant. Crude. Beautiful. I’ll take more of that, please.
And thanks, Callahan…