I promised Carol at ZenDotStudio that I would draw lines this weekend. So I did.
It was surprising how difficult drawing a line can be. I mean, it’s not just about getting up the energy to do something that may have gone by the wayside over weeks or months or years. It’s not just about facing the what if’s and the if only’s that tend to haunt things-let-go-for-long. It’s not just about the anger, resentment, sadness, depletion, oh-I-should-have-done-this-sooner. It’s not just about anything real except maybe that heart-pounding moment before the brush kisses the paper and the mind shuts off and the hand becomes an alien.
It’s just about drawing the line.
Drawing it as “Yes.”
Drawing it as “No.”
Drawing it as “Oh, how I want this to be different but it isn’t going to be.”
Drawing it as “I thought I knew how to do this but not any more so start again.”
Drawing and seeing I’m outside the lines.
Drawing and knowing I’m out of line, at the end of the line.
Drawing down the page, the moon.
Ink
as teacher, dharma, and old friend,
showing me how to let go.
A poem:
The End of the Line
Carefully try to remember what
it is that you are doing. “How
do you do? How do you like
what you do?” are you going
to continue in the same wasteful
and thoughtless fashion?
Philip Whalen in What Book!? Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop, edited by Gary Gach
108zenbooks 
The blank page holds a terror of all the critisims yet unborn and many of those speaking from the past. I aim to just be there, with that …. breathe and see what happpens. courage!
I really enjoyed your post…thanks for sharing.
inspired by your poetry… 🙂 Thank you too.
As David Byrne and the Talking Heads once sang:
“Everybody, get in line! Nothing can come between us, nothing gets us down.”
Thank you for picking up the brush. Thank you for putting it down.
A wonderful metaphor for *living* life itself! Just do it, just live it – aware – life as it is – *allowing* it all to be drawn on the canvas… And always returning to what really matters, what’s really real… Thank *you* for practicing :)And sharing what it means to you!
Janice, everything is a blank page, isn’t it?
Barry, thank you for teaching me how to draw outside the lines! 😉
Christine, love the intersecting lines too!
Such beautiful lines! Oh You, the midwife of these lovely line children! It takes courage and trust and generosity to bring these ink and letter babies into our world. Thank-you.
I was doing qigong this weekend… the lines of my body asking me the same questions, showing me the same things… the dharma
Hey Mama-Om! Thanks for listening to your body’s questions! Year-round goodies, right? 🙂
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