A Valued Read

 In 2011 I attended a writers conference where Dinty Moore was one of the presenters. I was so enamored with the fact that I was in the same room with Lee Gutkind, founder of the creative nonfiction genre, that I didn't pay much attention to Moore. I regret that.

   Yet at that event, I picked up this book and have just now started reading it. Packed with little essays for meditation, each gem inspires me to examine my writing life.

Here is one I opened to today:

38. "The truth you believe in and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new." Pema Chodron

"A crucial aspect of mindfulness is becoming aware of what we're clinging to and recognizing the cliches in our own thinking and beliefs. There are notions that stick in our brain like plaque adheres to the arteries of our heart, and neither of these is good for us.

"If something has seemed to be true for as long as you can remember, it is easy to begin imagining that this belief is unassailably true, that it is incontrovertible, because it has always seemd so, because it has stood the test of time. But in fact, time is not much of a test. Ask Galileo, for instance.

"The only true test is examination. Whay do I believe that? Is it merely convenient to believe that? Is this belief comfortable because it lets me off the hoook? Do I just believe this idea or truism because my mother, my father, my priest, my friend told me?

"The mindful thinker is relentless, always challenging."

Moore's writings open up new worlds of thought for me, and I just wanted to share one of his pearls with you. Enjoy your bright sunshiny snow day today!

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