Writers, Photographers, Filmmakers: A challenge for you to accept

Be a spot on the ground where nothing is growing,
where something might be planted,
a seed, from the Absolute. —Djalal ad-Din Rumi

Is it hard for you to be nothing? To not be productive? To not be seen? How often do you stop? How often do you stop doing, being productive, striving to be seen, to score, to go viral? Where in all the busyness are you? Where is your creating? It doesn’t matter if you are a film-maker, video-maker, photographer, writer, artists, dancer – what happens when you let yourself be nothing.

I ask myself those questions at least once a week – when I’ve finally managed to log off, to leave the iPhone at least two hundred feet away, when I sit in the old camp chair (got it for five bucks at a yard sale.) on the front porch and force myself to not move. I force myself to watch a hard case hummingbird spend so much time guarding the feeder that he never gets to eat. I force myself to silence the rattling in my mind long enough to hear faint footsteps on the floor, turn and see the teen-age skunk stealing the kibble I put out for the black and white feral cat. I force myself to come back into my body and feel the evening breeze sweep the July heat out of the air. I force myself to remember that twenty-five years ago every moment of my life was spent like this – in connection with three dimensional, five senses reality. Maybe a story comes. Maybe nothing comes except gratitude.

And you? I challenge you to try this experiment. There may not be a chair or a porch or a vicious hungry hummingbird. Wherever you are when you read this post, log off and stop. I’d love to hear what happens for you.

Photo: kennykunie