First in a Daily Series About My Evolution as an Essay Writer and a Poet on Medium
A look back at December 10th, 2020 and the month before
I joined Medium as a reader in September 2020. My writing journey did not begin in earnest until several days after December 3rd, 2020 when I moved alone from NYC to southern New Hampshire, leaving behind all my friends and family for what I then anticipated to be a few-month healing and metamorphosis process.
I am still here and it is unlikely I will ever return to city living.
I thought tonight that it may be an informative process, both for myself and my readers, to take a daily look back at my writings from a year before.
I entered that December with nine followers, and when I saw that begin to grow (I reached fifty-six by the end of the month) I wrote my 5th haiku (which I now understand was more a senryu, as it’s not about nature) and first to be published anywhere, for Alan Lew’s fine publication, New Earth Consciousness:
with gratitude say you motivate and inspire hopefully mirrored
That same day I wrote two more haiku, inspired by one cold winter nighttime jog under the stars, which I published as one story. As you can see from this and the one above, I did not yet know that Medium favors placing the feature image below the title and subtitle.
running under stars Orion draws back Arrow at Whom is it aimed?
sprinting final stage 3rd eye scanning the night sky if know where to look
My final story that day was one of my essays for Diana C.’s fabulous Know Thyself, Heal Thyself (my spiritual homegroup that is presently taking a sabbatical but is still available for you to read amazing stories by the most spiritual writers on this platform) that I wrote in the style of my mind moving like a pinball between bumpers.
All right, enough shenanigans — the subject matter of everything I have submitted so far to our esteemed publication has been heavy and deeply emotional. I arrived in New Hampshire with doubts about the breadth of my writing. I arrived knowing I write well, yet with doubts about whether I AM A WRITER. This afternoon I discerned with conviction that not only am I a writer, I am a writer who loves writing — I am a writer who loves thinking — thinking deeply about the subject matter with an eye to presenting original insights.
If it pleases you to read the shenanigans and about my thoughts on doubts:
No one picked up on the double entendre in my title. Oh well, or perhaps some readers did so as a couple (Joseph Lieungh you were one, Diana the other) highlighted without comment this passage in the text:
I love deep; getting there slowly with penetrating determination and taking my time to fully explore all parts of the cavern.
November 2020
I am forever grateful to Alan for accepting me as a writer in November 2020 when I didn’t know a thing about Medium and publications. Here are the other stories I published there on November 21st, 22nd (two stories), and 30th, respectively:
In which I wrote in part:
The more likely construct, and men would probably chest-bump over it, is that divine feminine somehow became the term for soul while divine masculine became the term for human; and the not so nice story is that for millenia souls have been losing the battle, which doesn’t surprise me as most would find life in Heaven boring, and that may be why so many souls agree to endure ever more pain life cycle after life cycle.
This next story was inspired by (1) a story Alan had written months earlier about innovation cycles and COVID-19 and (2) a Joel Osteen broadcast:
For years I would catch Joel Osteen’s opening joke — they are always funny — despite as purient as my human side can be, I think clean humor is the funniest as it has to be clever (shout out to Jim Gaffigan) — and then once he moved on to Bible beating, I beat it in the other direction. This past May, his broadcast [on rebooting our personal operating systems] caught my attention and I watched the whole inspirational sermon. I wish everyone else had [watched] too.
In the second story on the 22nd, I wrote:
As fully described in many of my essays, my soul awoke in March upon the discovery of the accidental and tragic death of my lover. I look forward to completing my soul recovery in the next few months so I can do very deep dives, like exploring why Sitara and I were slaves in the 18th Century Caribbean and whether to some extent systemic racism is the abused becoming the abuser; and what would happen to a virulent racist white man if he found out that his soul had previously incarnated as a black slave — would the racism dissolve, or would he self-loathe, not for his racist actions but because he in effect carries the blood of those he hates and fears? Would he ascend or descend?
I imagine the results would be all over the board and would like to see a sampling of those life-reviews. The original title of this piece was “This 5th Generation American Jewish Male was a Black Slave in the 1700’s. The piece ended at the bolded word above and I felt the substance was relevant to the the first and one publication to accept me so I hit the “submit to publication” link, I was prompted to review before submitting, and my essay embarked on a journey. I hope you enjoy reading it at least as much as I enjoyed participating in its Creation.
My November 30th article was:
I took exception to Musk’s comments and tweeted about it in May. I questioned the basis for the predictive assessment that linked minds would yield faster and more precise communication. My Musk-Tweet. I am pleased to now do so without the 280-character-limitation.)
Three weeks ago, that article received its first comment from none other than Dr Mehmet Yildiz:
Your points in this story resonated well with me. I also have respect for technological breakthrough for the betterment of humanity but the risk of high tech with recent trends looks scary. I shared my perspectives in this story which you also provided useful insights. Linking it to enhance the messages in your article. https://readmedium.com/artificial-intelligence-does-not-concern-me-but-artificial-super-intelligence-frightens-me-e5354737d119 You are spot on the point from 3D to 5D. Perhaps it can be a catalyst but not by itself without spiritual transformation.
My November 1, 2020 article foreshadowed much to come, not only as it was my first in ILLUMINATION but because of how many spiritual yet nonreligious stories would follow:
I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite songs from one of my Spotify playlists that I had streaming as I wrote this, which is an old habit I need to get back to:
In Rama I create, with soul-energy surging through my body, inspiring me and breathing wind into my sails,