Welcome to Mindful Writing

How easy is it to take out your phone or tablet, pull up your social media of choice, word vomit 250 characters (if there's a limit), hit enter, and then promptly regret whatever it was you wrote?

Thank goodness I'm not famous or a few thousand people would have screen shot me misspelling the word six.

Though I find that the ability to type on a keyboard is a skill unto itself, I don't find myself worrying all that much when writing on my phone or tablet. Heck I rely so much on autocorrect when I fat-finger a word that I don't always notice when it corrects to something ridiculous. 

If there wasn't a standardization for submitting fiction and poetry to different journals, I probably wouldn't even notice that there were font options. (Granted I use comic sans for my webcomic - but that's a joke unto itself.) 

I don't notice the individual letters on the screen I'm reading from, just the words. And the words are important, but someone had to create the template that the program pulls together the letter images to form those words.

Last Christmas, my sister and brother-in-law gave me a beautiful glass pen which requires ink from an inkwell to use and a calligraphy book. I've only recently started trying them out.

And I love it!

An example of my work... it's not perfect, but I'm getting there.

There is something so satisfying gracefully crafting each letter into existence. I have to think before and during each stroke I make. The calligraphy book I'm working in describes the act as drawing instead of writing. I'm inclined to agree.

This isn't my first time trying out calligraphy. I grew up seeing the beautiful work from Japanese and Chinese writers and artists in my relatives homes and in museums. In middle school, we had a calligraphy section in my art classes where I epically failed at trying to draw Japanese kanji (my Japanese cousins had fun pointing out how I kept poorly writing the days of the week).

Eventually my interests drifted elsewhere, but I held on to some of my art work from that period in my life (until I left home and then it was lost - most likely - to the trash bin). However, that didn't lessen my appreciation of the artform when I came across it.

I have a few friends who have absolutely beautiful handwriting. It's almost enviable. One of my friends sends me letters and I almost want to frame them because her penmanship is unbelievable. Another of my friends actively wrote with a pen and inkwell during writing critique sessions. Though his critiques could be a blow to my ego, they always looked amazing.

As someone who struggled with writing for a long time, I never thought of my handwriting as "pretty". I remember my aunt once saw my penmanship while I was working on my travel journal to Japan. She was appalled and had me practice each letter every day at the kitchen table. My 11 year old self spent 6 weeks in Japan and for 6 weeks my aunt made certain I'd be able to read that journal nearly twenty years later. 

(I still have that journal. That handwriting is still awful. I was obsessed with food. I can see the improvement over the weeks.)

I would argue that my current journey into calligraphy is more meditative than anything. Unlike when I write a letter to a friend or type up my latest blog post, I'm completely focused on each movement I make with the pen. Each stroke must be carefully made or the ink might stain or the letter might look deformed. I relax and block out the outside world.

I do something similar when doing yoga, shooting a gun (at a designated target range), or actually meditating (there I'm usually focused on breathing). My problems melt away and I am in the moment - enjoying the moment.

If you're struggling to find something new to do or want to develop mindfulness, why not try calligraphy. It will be tough at first, but don't worry about what your work looks like at the beginning. The beauty will come with time. What you might find (or at least I hope you do) is the peaceful feeling that comes when focused on one task while the rest of the world doesn't matter.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week...maybe.