Everything

Everything you want is near. The stories you want to tell, the plot twists you need, the characters and scenes and words even that you’re looking for, that you can feel are missing in the world you’re dreaming on the page—they’re all near. You don’t need to make what you need, you don’t need to get it, and you certainly don’t need to earn it. Unfortunately, no matter how much you desire it, no matter how miserable you are without it, you can’t demand it either. What you need will come as a guest arrives at a party to which you sent a welcoming invitation.

You know what you want is near because of all the stories, all the surprising endings, all the ideas and epiphanies that have come to you before. They all came in the same fashion. They always arrived when you were quiet, when you weren’t trying, when you weren’t worried, when you weren’t doubting. You were just waiting, really, perhaps not even fully aware of what you were waiting for, having forgotten for a moment that you wanted something. You were content, though wouldn’t have thought to call this quiet waiting contentment as it was not a consequence of a problem being solved or a wish fulfilled. You simply fell into it as you would a daydream.

And then, in the middle of this contented waiting, something new arrived. Or, no – you can’t say for certain it did arrive. It was just there. You didn’t notice when it stepped through the threshold of your consciousness. One moment you were unaware of it, and the next it was right in front of you. Being a good idea, it felt both new and familiar, like another student in a classroom you’d ignored for most of the year only to discover come the spring you could be best friends.

Of course, once you saw the idea, you didn’t celebrate, you just sat up in your chair and got to work because this is how ideas arrive and this was hardly your first. It’s happened often enough you don’t call it miraculous, and you don’t question how you can be both content and waiting. A contended person has everything he needs, while a person waiting, it would seem, does not. And yet you are both, for even though you forget the truth of it, even though you worry and doubt, even though you start many a workday feeling as though you have no ideas whatsoever, when the idea comes you feel in that instant how near it had always been. There it was, right by you, and all you ever needed what to know where to look.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence.
You can find William at: williamkenower.com