"I don't need a man to fill this void in my life--just more pens."

is a thought I had the other day (okay several weeks now since I wrote half of this and forgot about it) as I sat down to my writing desk. That's a lie. My actually first thought was better--but I can't remember it because ironically I could not find a pen or any other writing implement at my desk to write it down with.

Don't we all have those moments when your not really thinking of anything and something great or absurd pops into your head?

Natalie Goldberg says in her book "Writing Down the Bones":

"First thoughts have tremendous energy. It is the way the mind first flashes on something. The internal censor usually squelches them, so we live in a realm of second and third thoughts, thoughts on thought, twice and three times removed from the first fresh flash."

I've been trying to write down these thoughts as soon as the come to me more often, and some of them are pretty funny and I will try to share them from time to time.

I feel like Goldberg's book and I were fated to meet since it was on the book list for one of my classes and then when I got to class I found out we didn't need it, but I read it anyway. I love that it is made up of lots of really short sections that I can read quickly but get me thinking and excited to write.

Here is another little nugget:

"Don't do that to yourself--'I am here, but I should be there.' It was torture for me. Wherever you are is the place to be writing from. Don't use the excuse that you are not in the right place. There is no perfect place. Just pick up the pen, record the details of where you are. Writing will show you that you are in the perfect place right now."

I love this because I actually wrote half this post over a month ago and just yesterday I was thinking about nostalgia, and how dangerous it is to become to seeped in it, at least personal nostalgia. The control freak in me loves it, because I know how all the stories end and they are subject to my complete control, but it's too safe. After all that thinking I signed on to get involved with a community art project though!

The one warning I would give is that this is a "warm and fuzzy" book, meant to help people to get it all out there in their writing. If you want a book to help you edit and refine your writing--this is not your book. But I would recommend it anyway!