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9:28 pm
It’s quiet. Edge and Waylon sleep, while I sit in the rocking chair next to a crackling fire. Night has become my time; everyone is sleeping, there is no work to be done, and I can stretch out my writing as long as I can stay awake.
The other day I heard an interview with songwriter and producer Pharell, and while talking about a movie studio rejecting seven of his songs before finally accepting the eighth, he said, “That stillness of nothing is when you can ask a clear question and get a clear answer back.”
After days spent at work in front of a computer, or at home with Waylon, nighttime brings me stillness. I love my days, and the contrast of their movement allows me to appreciate and sink even deeper into the stillness.
Some nights I don’t write at all.
Sometimes it takes me days to put pen to paper.
Sometimes I cannot stop the flow of words from heart to hand to paper.
And then there are moments like this one here, when I sit for a long while between sentences, filled with emptiness: the rich kind of emptiness that all possibility arises from, and the space between words is wide and still.
Finally, sleep pulls me away, but not before giving thanks. The last words in every journal entry are thank you. Always thank you. For what? For nothing, for stillness, for the blessings yet to come.
So beautiful, Katie. “And then there are moments like this one here, when I sit for a long while between sentences, filled with emptiness: the rich kind of emptiness that all possibility arises from, and the space between words is wide and still.”
I feel a similarity to this in my life. I feel that the emptiness you speak of resonates with the stillness of by inward type of nature I have been relishing in lately. From this…..whole new possibilities have been arriving.
Thank YOU!….for sharing your words.
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Stumbled upon your post & I liked what you wrote about the stillness of nothing.I’ve experienced the period when I couldn’t stop writing & then nothing…I went through a period of self reflection & questioning.Now I’m picking up the pen again.I realized that I needed that gap.
And yes you are right,I should be thankful for it.
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My husband and I rang in the new year watching four hours of Pharell’s “Happy” music video. While I would have savored every word of this post even were its inspiration someone else, this enhanced it for me. Beautiful. Thank you for getting to experience this.
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Beautiful and true. This reminds me of nights in Alaska when I was in high school – I was the only really early bird in my family, worse than my father, and I’d get up at three in the morning. In the chilly dark, I’d make a fire in the wood stove, then stand outside to gaze at ribbons of the Northern Lights. The incredible silent peace of those early, early mornings are what has stuck with me.
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