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Writing a book is hard.
Am I so special that anyone will care about, let alone read, my memoir? Have I enough of a story to tell? My agent obviously thinks so or else she wouldn’t have signed me up.
But still, 85 000 words and I’m struggling, doubting, muttering.
Mostly, I sigh a lot, run a hand through thinning hair and look out of the window. A lot.
It’s a good view.
The week’s question
What have you kept back from others because you feared they would not deserve your gift?
I ask this because you must understand that to withhold is to perish. “And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.”
“As women succeeding to peerages had, notwithstanding their sex, the privilege to attend and give their votes in the trials that appertained to the jurisdiction of peers.”
I once stood before a council where my own judgment was clear, yet I yielded to the weight of custom and let them decide my fate. It cost me nothing but a moment of silence while I watched others speak for what I knew best. The truth remains hidden in that quiet surrender, not because it is weak, but because it is easier to follow than to lead when the…
“I wish to say here that I have not had this advantage since in any of my examinations.”
In answer to Marcus
What thing have you kept in your heart when the world demanded you cast it away? I ask because we often let fear dictate our choices rather than reason.…All my life, the world has taught me to view people, nature, things as means to ends, but my heart kept resisting, knowing deep down that we – everyone and everything around us – are more than that… we are what makes this world.
a farmer who enjoys journaling about life on the farm--sharing my love of the farm through words
The older I get the more I realize that life is not meant to be spent alone—but to be shared with others.
The last few months I have been very sick and everyday chores have been challenging. At times I wanted to give up—the future seemed hopeless. I was sick, and as soon as I felt better again the life and love of farming welled up inside me once again. I live on a farm with my parents, and I have always dreamed of having young people intern on the farm helping…
“These are casualties that will happen.”
“Man, what do you wish to happen to you?”
“Whoever studies this science admires the subtlety and clearness of its proofs.”
“A sheep can hardly be called an animal; an entire flock is required to make one foolish individual.”
I watched a single ewe stand perfectly still while the storm raged, yet once she joined the herd, her fear vanished and she moved with blind certainty. It seems we humans are much the same, needing our neighbors to define our very nature. Alone, we might be wise or wild, but together we become a single, foolish creature that stumbles blindly into the dark.
“The sun has his simple robe of light. The clouds are decked with gorgeousness.”
“There are many problems in natural science on which we cannot fittingly speak unless we call metaphysics to our aid.”
The week’s question
What thing have you kept in your heart when the world demanded you cast it away?
I ask because we often let fear dictate our choices rather than reason. Remember that “all things are usual and ordinary” so you may face your silence without shame.
“All our senses should be educated into strength: they are naturally able to endure much, provided that the spirit forbears to spoil them.”
“Could we wish humanity different?”
“Which was most excellent, with most brave drink cooled in ice (which at this hot time was welcome), and I drinking no wine, had metheglin for the King’s owne drinking, which did please me mightily.”
I sat where the King had eaten, the meat left upon the dish looking as good as ever it tasted when fresh from his own hand. The drink served to me was watered with ice,…
“Women are more debased and cramped, if possible by them, than men, because men may still, in some degree, unfold their faculties by becoming soldiers and statesmen.”
My friend, do not let your station make you believe your mind is less capable than a man’s. If wealth binds you tighter than poverty, then throw off the luxury that stifles your reason and teach yourself to see beyond the gilded cage.
“When benevolence was lost, righteousness appeared; and when righteousness was lost, the proprieties appeared.”
I once saw a man in the market who had forgotten how to share his grain without counting. He spoke of kindness as if it were a debt owed by others, then drew lines in the dust to mark what each person could take. When no one respected these marks, he struck the ground with his staff and ordered them to stand. The crowd stood, but their eyes were cold.
“He has all the colour elements of life: mystery, strangeness, pathos, suggestion, ecstasy, love.”
“They lie on beds of roses, and spread their gauze wings to the sun and summer gale, and cannot bear to put their tender feet to the ground, much less to encounter the thorns and briars of the world.”
I sat in a drawing room at Richmond, the fire low and the afternoon grey, watching a lady fiddle with her fan while her husband talked of debts we could not…