An email on the weekend? Yes. Yesterday got away from me and I couldn’t post the third piece in my creativity series. After you read the piece, make sure to check out some great weekend links.

Writing Like Running, Like Butter, Like Flow

Head cocked, listening to the wind, writing what I hear—this closest explains the act of writing. There is some voice just on the other side of reason that comes whispering. I channel it, perhaps translate it. It’s the voice that belongs to the page. It comes in what writers, artists, and deep workers often call a “flow state.”

I felt this first in the sixth grade, lost myself in the handwriting of a short story about an end-times resurrection event involving frogs (of all things). I channeled that voice over the years in snippets of short stories, in mediocre poems and songs, in an unfinished novel, in a few decent books. Each channeling was an otherworldly experience, a connection with something distinctly mine even if it didn’t feel like… me.

It’s difficult to describe, the sense of writing in a flow state. I reached out to a friend and fellow writer, John Blase, and asked him how it felt to write in a flow state. He wrote:

Its one of those “if you know, you know” things. But its like getting your second wind when out for a run. You’re just about to, or maybe already have, hit the wall but you soldier on for a few steps (sentences) more then suddenly BAM!—the second wind kicks in and hell, you could run all day after that. You’re smooth like butter, not so much effort-less as effort-free. There’s a tangible sense of unity with everything around you, including yourself, which sounds woo woo, but if you know, you know.

More than a few million words have been sacrificed on the topical-altar of writing as a form of spiritual connection. I don’t intent to rehash those words here, nor do I intend to take it too seriously, which is why I love John’s take. This sort of connection is an endorphin rush, a second wind, a buttery sort of experience. It can come through writing poetry, or non-fiction, or a piece about the resurrection of frog in the end times. When you know you know, and when you flow you flow.

When writers find their state of flow, there’s connection with something bigger, something outside ourselves. I’m sure the same is true with painters, sculptors, knitters, and the like. When we create, we’re connecting with something more good, true, and beautiful.

Today, I’m inviting you to visit the creativity thread I opened at Substack. Share what you’re creating, and if you’re bold, leave a link to your work so we can read it, listen to it, or view it. Share how the act of creation is helping you forge a connection with our crazy little community.

Some Links to Unsuck Your Weekend

1. What is Sacramental Living? More to the point, what is Advent? I’ve had the pleasure of podcasting on the topic with Tsh Oxenreider. Check it out, and consider subscribing!

2. Need an Advent resource? Tsh has written an amazing Advent journey. Grab it now.

3. I’ve been listening to a lot of John Prine this year. He passed in this Year of Our Dumpster Fire, 2020. Damn you, COVID.