Memoir - more food for thought
Posted on | February 2, 2010 | No Comments
Personal Writing and Memoir
Posted on | January 30, 2010 | 1 Comment
Another Youtube on how we can use memoir….
All Saviors Disappoint
Posted on | January 29, 2010 | 2 Comments
This week’s cover for the ‘New Yorker’ shows four cartoon frames. A small figure walks towards us. As it gets closer we see that it’s Obama, walking on water. The final frame shows a surprised Obama as one leg disappears beneath the surface.
Very witty. Some people really felt that, like Jesus, Obama could walk on water. Now he’s suffered some set-backs. We grin.
But the metaphor has a deeper level. All Saviors, including Jesus, disappointed their followers (think about the crucifixion and you’ll see what I mean). And that is the whole point.
Saviors are not here to do everything for us. They arrive and ask US if we want to be part of the solution (’Together We Can’) — and then we have to get on with saving our own lives.
So I’ll say to those disenchanted voters, did you even try to be part of the solution? Really? Or did you simply hand over a broken country to a new president and say, ‘Here, fix this mess’ ? Frankly, you wouldn’t treat your car mechanic that way. Why would you be less patient with your president?
The savior’s task is not to save you, but to get you to save yourself. So - are you up for it?
Memoir as Soul Work
Posted on | January 26, 2010 | No Comments
I’m going to be putting a series of videos up in the coming days, giving hints as to how you can turn your memoir (or in fact any kind of personal writing) into something that will grow you as a conscious being. You may not like the words ‘Soul Work’ because they seem religious. They’re not. They’re simply a way to describe how we can access our deepest wisdom - - because when we do that we grow our ability to show compassion, understanding, and use our wisdom more effectively.
That’s how we regain our happiness. And our sense of peace. And our ability to bring more peace and understanding into the world. And….
I think you get the picture.
Memoir - It’s still about Soul Work
Posted on | January 24, 2010 | No Comments
I’ve just uploaded another video to Youtube
.
With luck the link should work, otherwise try this address:
Memoir writing is not just about proving oneself more right than anyone else (Sarah Palin might be an example of that way of thinking). It’s about digging deeper so that we can grow in understanding, compassion, and love. That’s Soul Work.
Memoir -and the Buddha
Posted on | January 23, 2010 | No Comments
Some of you may know the famous Buddhist saying; “I am in the Buddha and the Buddha is in me”. In other words, without me, the things taught by Buddhism, such as peace and love, cannot come fully into existence. Buddha energy needs me to help express it, and it needs you, too. And we need it, because I can’t think of anyone who has too much peace in his or her life.
The same is true of Memoir - at a less exalted level, perhaps. Your life history needs you to express it to others, for if you don’t do that all the wisdom is likely to be lost. You need Memoir, so you can comprehend your life. And as you do the writing real wisdom gets expressed that otherwise couldn’t come to light.
You need Memoir; and Memoir needs you.
Money and Haiti
Posted on | January 19, 2010 | No Comments
The BBC news this evening told me that $200 million had been pledged to Haiti by various foreign governments as aid and relief. The news anchor seemed impressed.
This effort is commendable. Yet it still adds up to about the same amount as three F21 fighter jets.
People, it may, once again, be up to us ordinary citizens to make all the difference. Please give.
Nothing is but thinking makes it so.
Posted on | January 13, 2010 | No Comments
Hamlet may have been reaching for some certainty when he said this line, but it still can guide us. Everything we think in response to an event is a construction that we are placing on that event or feeling. And it might be wrong.
If I feel I will die if I don’t buy a new car, then my thinking has made that so - not reality. If I feel my life is an empty failure then I’m presuming I can know the totality of effects that result from my life, which is arrogant, to say the least.
Yet, I can also choose to think happy, peaceful, or optimistic thoughts, even when faced with real disasters. Haiti is a disaster zone today; yet in that disaster we can see human caring, bravery, compassion and love. It’s up to us where we focus.
Love
Posted on | January 12, 2010 | No Comments
There are many things worth remembering, and one of these is that love can only come into a place of stillness within us. It cannot make itself felt in turmoil, because confusion is all we can feel at such times.
If you want love in your life you may have to practice stillness.
Anyone for cricket? A Metaphor.
Posted on | January 10, 2010 | No Comments
Every so often I read the British cricket reports, since it is the national game of my erstwhile homeland. This season’s matches against South Africa have shown an England side that has had some success, but is at the moment chiefly praised for its tendency to hang on, white knuckled, and force a draw in matches that looked as if they were going to collapse in defeat.
The British have been moved, relieved, and divided on this.
One camp snorts derisively at these failures to win, and calls a draw a feeble effort.
The other camp looks on these drawn matches as substantial efforts in their own right, where a team refuses to capitulate even when all hope seems lost, clinging on being seen as an achievement in its own right.
I am in this latter camp. Winning and losing are so black and white; while holding on and saving the day if one possibly can is much closer to one’s actual life struggle, and therefore has the greater power to move me.
Living is emphatically not a series of victories. It is a slow wearing down of the body as we move ever closer to extinction. When this happens we have some choices - we can give up and become helpless, perhaps. We can also choose not to give in, to say (in the words of the Guardian’s sports writer)
“No. No thanks. Not today. Not ever.”
Some so-called defeats turn out to be far more important statements about the resilience of the human soul than a mere ‘win’.
Write Your Memoir:
The Soul Work of Telling Your Story
The Six Archetypes of Love: From Innocent to Magician
Stories We Need to Know: Reading Your Life Path in Literature
Life Passages: Writing Exercises for Your Life Journey
Hi—I’m Allan Hunter, author of The Six Archetypes of Love and Stories We Need to Know as well as two books on writing for self-exploration, Life Passages and The Sanity Manual. If you’re looking to live your best life I hope you’ll find lots of inspiration here.
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