View Original Handwritten Notes
Hello, World. Two simple words that directed so much in the world.
Breathe—always good, and it keeps the body loose and moving. Take a good look at how you’re feeling in each part of your body. Relax any unrest. Get enough exercise. Get out when you can. The more you feel free, the better you feel. Let yourself be free.
Now, quickly—as minutes are fleeting—let’s return to our subject. What would be some ways to make things more useful? I’ve been thinking about the same thing for my daily notes: how to summarize them, how to make them better overall. They’re a place to check in, a space to mine for thoughts, but they often get broken up. They’re merely the input vector—it’s up to me to ponder, collect, gather, or leave them as pure abstraction. Ha! Left to their own devices.
Okay, great use of a few minutes. Once you start writing into time and focusing on posture—smooth, long breaths—time itself becomes something more mutable, like putty in the hands that constrain the clock to its single-purposed face. When time matches flow, other changing characteristics become worth noting. But more importantly, the basic tension between writing organization, motivation, and simply giving a damn will influence any system of analysis I impose on my freewriting efforts.
What’s more, I rather enjoy the lean of my pen and the swift application of ink to page—jet bubble or rollerball jubilance. Deep breath—what a climb to the end of this page.
Can I do a page of freewriting in five minutes? One whole page? That’s no easy task. First, I’ll make sure my writing is appropriately sized. Then, I’ll write comfortably but also loosely, conserving ink and arm movement. Maybe introduce a cursive lean—it somehow makes things more beautiful.
Margins have been on my mind. We’re more than a minute in, and I need to relax my hand. While reaching the margins, I don’t have to overreach them. Fast thinking and equally fast capture are nice, but I wonder—what’s the balance between speed and comfort? How close are those words to pure thought? If more time is taken, does it improve the writing? And does it even matter, depending on the writing type and the quality of the desired results?
Speed-wise, my hand time isn’t quite there, but ten minutes should be no problem. Five pages in 30 minutes—six minutes per page—that would be tough, but what a challenge. And wow, that would be some amazing freewriting, especially if I could read all five pages afterward. Even research suggests that writing by longhand is more cathartic and effective at managing one’s mental processes. But at the cost of efficiency.
So, I have to come back to the balance: what’s the right amount of time to write a page effortlessly, from margin to margin, without planning or outlining? Again, intent. Intent, the notion of time, and hunger. Sometimes, you just have to ride it out. That’s how it goes when you’re moving fast.
I should have started a timer—let’s say I started at 2:34. Time marches one way, and we try to make it go the other. Catching up with thoughts should be no problem. But maybe I’m showing up too much.
Why don’t I just ask AI all my problems? If people are willing to give it up for Jesus, might as well give it up for AI. As a planning tool, it’s quite capable.
It’s odd—my taxes are looking so positive. Must be due to my claims and the change in my tax contributions? Contributions as a person, but then tax is calculated per family. It’s all about capturing, documenting, and entering things into a system.
I’m wondering—how do I want to structure and organize my finances and affairs for the end of life? I have to figure that out. But I almost have enough to cover it entirely. With that covered, I can pull from it, inspiring my investments. Wax units? And what do I do to ensure I remain fulfilled and valuable?
First, you’ve got to make it. Then you’ve got to work a little every day to keep things from slipping.
Practical and pragmatic! Pragmatism in one’s efforts to go forth and prosper. Before taking on another huge project, see what can be done to further organize and improve existing processes. That’s a safe design.
That’s the way of the scribe.
(11 minutes. 2:45.)
2:50
Once a race is started, what matters is finishing.
Try not to let the intruding energy of others interfere. What is five pages in 40 minutes? Five minutes per page? I think I can do eight minutes. Let’s see. I don’t want to try too hard—that interrupts the flow.
Beyond that, it’s about showing up. You show up when you do the work. When you are doing the work.
When living becomes fun, then what? Has becoming become the purpose?
Also—the beauty of sunshine in the day. The planets at night. Exquisite. And every moment in between—those glimpses of pure goodness—make it all worth enduring. Even if it’s just to make it to the next hour. Even if it’s just to survive one disaster, only to be beset by another.
Imagine not just one disaster, but multiple. Not just you, but your entire family. What would it take to build multi-level resilience? To encounter these opportunities life presents? To never forget the beauty in the ugly?
Life is as much about how we play the game as it is about how the game plays us.
And true—it’s best to derail focus, to command attention in sneaky ways. We have to think about things like unleashing our breath control and meditation.
Like, really.
And what the French fry—why aren’t there other animals as complicated as us? Instead, nature seems to have hardwired them into that magical state of heightened awareness. I suppose we, too, have been wired into a state where we may as well cut off our senses to outer controls—or at least feed them a steady diet of Burger King and Stephen King.
(2:59.)
3:09
Wow—the tracking of time and setting goals can change output, but it might not change the kind of output. Just tweaks things a little. Then you step aside and let it flow again.
At a certain speed, there’s an incredible synergy—creativity, the mining of raw thought. Maybe even utilizing the mind in a slightly different way.
I wonder—what would my handwriting have looked like 100 years ago? And before it was learned? A child now can learn cursive and become proficient, yet even those feats are becoming rarer. The human brain has been shrinking. A fight between creators and consumers?
And yet, in the balance of all things—matter implodes. The laws of physics dictate that you can’t have one without the other. So, don’t let yourself be trapped in one or the other. Without consumption, how would you ever know what exists among its class? But without creation, can you truly say you partook in life at all?
Balance.
Perhaps the mystery is in what the creator brings. But like all beautiful things, the work itself often is the beauty. Its complexity is often belied by its elegance.
We have but another segment, a moment to take a breath or reflect.
Yet, we take those moments for granted. Only when we are uncomfortably squeezed—placed under stress—does our true greatness step forward.
The creator commands the medium, yet allows a looseness in technique, a flow, an originality.
If you keep turning over rocks, eventually, you’ll find a jewel.
And if not? Well—flipping those rocks makes you happy. That sunshine-on-your-face kind of feeling. The ultimate high of a perfect run on a perfect day.
And then—nuclear fallout.
Then what?
Or we get into it with our spouse. Or we’re annoyed with the kids.
What then?
How do we keep doing the work, even in the face of challenges?
The answer is simple: You still have to do the work.
Show up. Stay alive. The rest takes care of itself.
And sometimes, when you get a little too comfortable, you have to push yourself to be better. To accept challenges. To overcome defeat.
And in most cases, it’s about being the cause of your own greatest pain.
And then—getting out of the way for the learning process to begin.
3:20 AM – I’m falling asleep! My hand is tired.