Behind the Eye that is Reading

Today I am grateful for my sense of hearing and how it helped me appreciate a walk with our dog Oliver this morning. I am also grateful for laughter among friends.

I have one more post stemming from the words of Audre Lorde. The following was on the back of the book cover of The Cancer Journals when I first read it in early 2009:

"This is why the work is important. Its power doesn't lie in the me that lives in the words as much as in the heart's blood pumping behind the eye that is reading, the muscle behind the desire that is sparked by the word - hope as a living state that propels us, open-eyed and fearful, into all the battles of our lives. And some of those battles we do not win. But some of them we do." 

The work is our writing. My writing. The writing I did with my friend Jenny after we both traveled through breast cancer treatment and surgeries side by side. The writing I have done over the last forty years.

My own writing is often sparked by the words of another writer. I know that amazing feeling of heart's blood pumping as I read words that hit me in a profound way at that particular moment.
My hope as a writer is that my words do the same for others.

The last lines above from Lorde really push me to keep going into each day, even on those days that I feel some discouragement or lack of hope. Hope as a living state simply means suit and show up Lisa. Do what you can today and be kind and gentle with others and yourself while you are at it.

Being open-eyed and fearful is being fully alive.

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