These past days I've been working away at a very short article for a community newspaper on the subject of 'community'. The words have not come easily and it's taken more time than is spare and yet I've persisted. The agreement was to produce around 500 words by the 13th April and that's done, with 45 mins in hand! Deadlines are a blessing because they make one do something that otherwise would get put off until latter. And they can be a problem because of the very human tendency to work right up to the last possible moment before submitting causing a huge sense of pressure.
Writing for this blog is relatively easy, I type what is in my mind and the words tend to flow. Not so this article. The difference is I was deliberately trying to make a point about community from a Buddhist perspective. I rarely try to make a point of teaching while blogging. If there is teaching it tends to fall into place all on it's own.
My carefully crafted, 475, words will now 'sit' over night and be sent in the morning. What it must be like to be an actual 'writer' waiting at home alone for ones book to be rejected, again, I cannot begin to imagine. Next time a writing request comes I'll think twice and perhaps pass it on to somebody who can produce words faster.
It's been one year and two days since my first posting on Moving Mountains and exactly one year since arriving in Japan. Naturally enough I've been reflecting on what has been said here and thinking about the frequency of posting and future directions. Not a bad thing to reflect on ones actions from time to time.
