"Write around the puke"

Around ten years ago, I heard Toni Morrison say something that changed my entire life and no I am not exaggerating

I’m taking a workshop right now with a couple of Jungian scholars and analysts that’s focused on “finding one’s own myth.” We are reading Carl Jung’s Memories, Dreams, and Reflections while exploring stories and myths that have shaped our lives.

We were asked to write about a moment, story, hero, idea, metaphor, whatever - real or imagined - that hit us deeply, like right in the soul, then lodged itself there permanently. That’s my paraphrase, of course. I knew almost immediately what mine would be.

Here is what I wrote I response. I thought some of you, particularly those trying to balance creative work and “real life,” or even dreams and reality, the “soul’s calling” versus the calls of surviving in this world — well, anyway. Here it is. It is rough and unedited, but some things are best that way.