Happy New Year Writers and Readers!
Dear Readers and Writers, Wishing you all a Mindful and Heartfelt 2012! ...
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Writings and Readings Blog
Madhu Bazaz Wangu
A Letter to My Granddaughter
My Aria, My Rosebud, A few months before your birth your mother called to tell us that you were going to be a girl. "What a blessing!" I said as the images of my own two blessings surfaced in my mind. As a young woman, I used to daydream about having a little girl of my own. My fortune doubled when we were blessed with two daughters: your mother Srimal (Garland of Happiness) and your Massi Zoon (Moon). Now some thirty years later, with your birth a fresh wave of delight has surged. You, Aria (Melody, Hymn, Song). Here is another opportunity for me to observe and experience your life, a young woman's wonderful world, all over again. As I write this, you are one year old, and I am at the threshold...
Read MoreWriting After Fifty
With passing years, writing becomes our most trustworthy friend. Wherever we go there it is! It paces with us as we enter the autumn and winter of our lives. We age. Writing is ageless. So many writers, still in their forties and fifties, feel an urge to write full time. They leave a paying job when they can afford to do so, to follow their writing passion, to fulfill their dream of getting a manuscript completed and the book published. In an interview with Gabriel Packard, Walter Mosley, who began writing at 34, said, "If you come to something later in life, and you've been beaten down enough-your ego's been beaten down enough for you to think, "Well, I might actually be a failure at life" (as a writer)-I think that's...
Read MoreTraditional Publishing Verses Self-Publishing
In this age of technology book publishing is in flux. Any one who can write can get published instantly. The situation is outrageous for those who have struggled through the traditional way of getting published. The battle, however, is not between those who have or want to get published traditionally and those who want to self-publish. The battle is for the end result: A good book! If you think, who needs to go through the hassle of finding an editor or a publisher? Who needs critiques and comments from publishing professionals? Why experience discomfort only to have to wait for months and risk getting eventually rejected? Right? Wrong! After you have selected one of your several drafts that you feel passionately about and revised it to the best of your ability, it...
Read MorePleasure of Writing Meditation
Mindful writer does not spend too much time talking about getting published. She just writes! She knows unless she births a good book there is nothing to publish. When she mails a manuscript to an editor or an agent, at once she begins her next writing project. She does not forget that the reason she began writing was the sheer love of writing. Not for fame or fortune. Her goal is to finish a good manuscript and move on to the second and then the third one. She believes that a fine manuscript, with right effort, patience and perseverance, would get published. As a mindful writer, my best Writing Meditation days are when I mediate before sunrise. After the sunrise, I journal for half an hour and then get absorbed...
Read More“Meditation for Mindful-Writers” CD
Dear Readers, Below I have pasted selected excerpts from what the mindful writers, who practice the discipline of Writing Meditation, have to say about"Meditation For Mindful Writers" CD. Your Mindful Writing CD is absolutely beautiful!!! I love the crystal clear sound of your gentle voice! And the narrator's voice is strong and commanding. The music adds a peaceful touch! Wonderful job! You should be so pleased with the outcome! I love it! (Judy B. Schneider, Editor & Author, October 2011) I listen with awe of what you have produced. I feel so honored to have witnessed the blossoming of your effort into this amazing CD. Well done!! (Cathy Vignolini, Writer, October 2011) I love it! It's beautifully recorded and I felt just as though you were beside me focusing my meditation with your gentle,...
Read MoreTo Do List
It was the Monday after the Fourth of July. Our daughter and her husband entered our front door, hugged their eight-month old baby Ariana and kissed their son Mokhta, now five-years old. "Did the "To Do List" help, Mommy?" she asked me in the kitchen where I was brewing Darjeeling tea for them. They had returned from a three-night break at Nemacolin Resort to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. Before she left, she had placed a piece of paper on the refrigerator that read: "Ariyana's To Do List" 7:00 Wake Up and 4oz. milk ~10:00 ...
Read MoreRevise Your Day!
A Mindful Writers Mantra Deep in meditation, one morning the phrase, "Revise your Day!" appeared to my mind's eye. For a year or so I had been searching for a meaningful phrase, called mantra in Sanskrit, a phrase that would coalesce my passion for writing, my abiding love for meditation and the pursuit of the betterment of my life until the last breath. A few weeks prior to this revelation, I was struggling with how to better my life similar to the way I revise and rewrite my rough writing drafts. A decade ago, I had quit my teaching job partly because I did not want to fall into an academic teaching rut. I wanted to focus on my writing and painting and to improve my daily life. It was not that...
Read MoreSteve Jobs: The “i”Genius
On October 6, 2011 Steve Jobs, inventor of the iMac/iPod/iPad/iPhone, died. And I, like millions of others, felt that something in me extinguished. I was deeply saddened when I heard that this charismatic and inspiring risk-taker was dead at 56! It is because of individuals like him who jolt us and shake us and wake us up from our slumbering life that we learn how much we, as single individuals, are capable of doing, how much potential each of us has. Yes, I am aware that, like any one of us, his life was contradiction of demonic and angelic traits. I read that he was petulant, abrasive, brittle, selfish, counter-culture, a control freak, nasty and ruthless. But his negative attributes morphed into positives. Let's not focus on what was unpleasant...
Read MoreWho is a Mindful Writer?
Mindful Writers are those who follow the discipline of Writing Meditation. (See Writing & Meditation Page) Almost every day they practice Writing Meditation. They may write in solitude but it is glorious and empowering to write in the company of other Writers. Gathered in one space, they seem like a group of islands engrossed in their own genre of creative writing so intense that they exude an aura that inspires and motivates. The absorption in their work radiates in the atmosphere as a sort of collective energy. The Writers begin with an intention to complete a draft, first or final, of their manuscript-fiction, non-fiction or collection of essay or stories-in nine-months. They have a definite goal that they divide into thirty-eight segments and make a commitment to stick to their schedule....
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