Plato and Virginia

Say hello to my new friends, Plato and Virginia Woolf, who have traveled all the way from Melbourne via Canberra to watch over me as I write. They are currently attached to my bed head - they are not only finger puppets but magnets too. Virginia is watching me get a 'room of one's own' as I plan to stop writing, working, living and sleeping on my bed and instead have that space to write! I am finding it harder and harder to write as I feel so cluttered and cornered. Whilst Plato is here to help me focus on my reasoning by helping me to understand the decisions I make/made. They are both here to help balance my left brain and right brain. Both of which I believe are required when writing. All creativity has a critical element. Decisions to be made such as what word to use or what direction to take the story/poem/script in. All these decisions come under the wonderful idea of being creatively critical and critically creative which, I believe, sums up the writing process. I love the idea of understanding my processes which is why I embarked on a PhD I do believe.

My PhD, as I have been told frequently, is just the beginning. And I thought so too, I had so many aspirations, which included world domination of course, unfortunately they have splintered in front of my eyes this week. I have to rethink so much now and learn to let my fingers do the walking instead. As always when things are hard I escaped into writing and reading. I came upon this: '...you might gain more and more trust in what is hard and in your own loneliness among other people. And otherwise let life take its course. Believe me: life is right, whatever happens.'(Rainer Maria Rilke) It is something I will keep reminding myself. In the meantime the song below was sent to me at my lowest moment by a friend who understood how sad I felt. In the meantime I just have to find new ways to have an impact on this world.