by the doing...

Don’t worry about your talent or capability: that will grow as you practice. Katagiri Roshi said, “Capability is like a water table below the surface of the earth.” No one owns it, but you can tap it. You tap it with your effort and it will come through you. So just practice writing, and when you learn to trust your voice, direct it….

…people often begin writing from a poverty mentality. They are empty and they run to teachers and classes to learn about writing. We learn writing by doing it. That simple. We don’t learn by going outside ourselves to authorities we think know about it.

           – from Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg

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Somewhere, the voice of William Stafford is breathing uh-huh to the wind. And I agree.

This is not to say that I shouldn’t read or study other writers. I need to. Maybe, if for no other reason, to see other possibilities, other forms, other ideas. But, more importantly, I need to learn what not to say, what not to write. I’m on a path. And it’s my path I have to walk.