Monday, January 8, 2007

stories with spirit

My grandmother whom suffers dementia and schizophrenia has been seeing ghosts in her housing commission flat. They are not threatening (so aren't your run of the mill hallucinations). One is a man reading a book whom tells her "I see what I see- you see what you see." This is very deep and makes me wonder. She sees these ghosts in the daytime which has happened in Australia to her but not in Vietnam. It is a vein of exploration for me- as you may have guessed if you have been following my creative work at all.
I have been reading a Thich Nhat Hanh book "the buddha's heart" which explains his basic teachings. What I have come away with is a concern about my writing which can lead me into some very dark places. But I always come out again and always write with a sense of hope- not necessarily happy endings but a sense that not all is despair. Thay asks writers to write about healing and water non violent seeds rather than the stuff we are exposed to in the mass media.
I try to do this, and be mindful and kind to my dark places.

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