NaNoWriMo+Mood Music Ep. 5

I’m going to share a little poem I wrote a long time ago. It’s technically a sonnet, but that’s not what matters most to me about it. What matters most to me about it is this one line:

Don’t already know what you’re going to say.

Have you ever been in a conversation where it seems like the other person isn’t really listening? Of course, we all have; but what I mean is: they are engaged, and talking to you, but it seems like what they are saying isn’t exactly in response to what you are saying, and is more like, just what they WANT to say, what they had already planned to say? I am sure this has happened to you—it happens to me all the time, on both sides. I’ll know what I want to say. I’ll patiently wait for the other person to finish what they are saying, and then I will say what I had planned to say in the first place—no matter what they just said. Unfortunately, that’s not being in conversation, or relating to that other person. That’s just two people talking at each other.

The same thing can happen with your creative project if you don’t actively listen to what it is telling you. You can sit down with a plan (great!) and then you get started, and well, plans change. If you keep trying to strong arm what’s actually happening into what you had planned to happen, you are probably going to end up with a frustrating result. So, as you do your creative project, let it be what it wants to be. A plan is always good, but allow yourself to respond to what’s actually happening. You may end up with something even better than you had planned.

The same goes the next time you are in a conversation: actually be in it. Don’t already know what you are going to say. Listen, and respond. So, on that note, here’s that poem. It’s called “Open Me”

This day will never come again. Listen
to the wind rush through the eucalyptus.
Give yourself entirely to this minute,
to every subtlety, every charming thing in it.
Follow the crows' watery glide through air,
laugh when a squirrel drops a nutshell in your hair.
Don't already know what you're going to say;
breathe, let go of the agenda, play.
And let yourself be surprised: don't hide behind
day planners and watches and pride.
Cold calculation is not your friend
in a day, like this day, that will never come again.
If what you really want is to be made whole 
then don't tread carefully, just go.

And now, Name. That. Mood! This song is a cross-section of my brain after a long day of multitasking: Word to Excel, back to Word, into Google Sheets, login to the funder portal, copy and paste, someone’s texting me, spam call, decline, doorbell rings, back to excel…Calgon take me away!!!! What do you think?

—MBF