Monday Mantra: Let What You're Seeking, Seek You Out

A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation".

Every Monday I will post a new thought, idea, or focus for the week. When you need a breather from life, when you need a little inspiration, or when you're about to jump over the conference table and strangle your co-worker, remember the mantra.

Monday Mantra: Let what you're seeking, seek you out

Society6
Maisao

I couldn't tell you how many poems I've written. They're everywhere; Word files on my computer, college lined notebooks in desk drawers, notes typed into my phone. Poems scribbled on whatever pieces of paper I could find - grocery lists, receipts, napkins. Most are finished, but a solid amount have yet to be finalized.

Some are simply ideas; a sentence here or there. A title. A thought. Some are complete, in the sense that they are, technically, fully written poems. But I can't bring myself to call them complete because there's something off. Something that's missing. Something that needs to be adjusted.

For a long time, I've let them sit untouched. I suppose I gave up. Many felt close to perfect, but so very off that I had deemed them failed attempts. Lately, however, I've been challenging myself to look at them with fresh eyes, an open mind, and a willingness to say, "You must be dismantled entirely so your true form can emerge."

It's been an exiting adventure in trust, creativity, and letting go of what I think something should be for what it is or needs to be.

Some poems emerged better than I ever could have pictured. Some came out perfectly aligned to what I had thought they might be so many years ago, but better in ways I never saw coming. Others have changed in direction, intent, tone. Some, it seems, are writing themselves, with words and phrases leaping out of thin air.

This practice in trying again has taught me two important lessons:

First, things that at one time seemed ruined may, in fact, have never been ruined at all. Maybe they just needed a second, different life. A second chance to become what they were meant to be all along.

And second, when something is not working out the way you hoped or when an idea isn't fully emerging, leave it be. Stop, walk away, and let it come back to you in its own time. Forcing something to work will never yield the same results as letting is naturally unfold. When the time is right, everything will be revealed.

Have patience when you dig through what you've deemed to be ruined. You may just find a treasure.