Noted

I have over 50 notebooks and journals. Beautiful ones, with leather covers or thick, cream pages. They hold such promise.


They terrify me. They are too pure, too pristine, and I feel my words are not sufficient, not worthy. I have to forgive myself for marring their pages.


Today I exorcise this writing fear rooted in perfectionism. I embrace Chilton Pearce's words: "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."




These are my freedoms:


1. I am free to make mistakes--no apologies.
2. I do not always have grand ideas.
3. I am ordinary.
4. I commit grammatical errors.
5. I will allow my handwriting to go haywire.
6. I do not have to fill the pages.
7. I will not edit what I have handwritten.
8. I forgive myself for starting only now and am grateful for this 45th second chance.
9. I do not have to please anybody, even me.
10. Relax.

Networking

Absolutely brilliant.

Enter a word in Visuwords, an online graphical dictionary, and words that relate to your entry just pop, spring, ricochet and expand into a color-coordinated web of synonyms, opposites, hypernyms, and derivations.



When the words settle down into a fully-fleshed network, they gently throb and breathe, like the living things that they are. Such a delight.

And the dictionary is free.


(Discovered from "Write now is good.")