Authentic Thanksgiving :)

Heya!

Now I couldn't find any suitable title for this post. ;) After, all the efforts that Sarah Hina took to come down and give her best for her post, I couldn't find any better way than this to thank her for this kind gesture.

It was her sincere instant response that made it possible. It was a great feeling to find a guest post from someone whom I have been following for quite sometime. Frankly speaking it was not long back that I knew Sarah but her first article on Aniket's website had made me an instant fan of her writings. And finally as she accepted my request, it made my day!

As it all went fine and got posted, the first thing I checked in the morning was my blog and it was there! I had never done so in my whole life even if it was my own blog! But that I was expecting to see her post I couldn't wait and it was a super duper moment! And I thank Sarah for making it so wonderful that it was.

@Sarah: I have been on and off my blog but this was the best moment which I have experienced through these 4 years of my blogging experience. It was my blog's 4th Birthday on 16th August and I too hadn't realized this until now when it struck me suddenly. So, nothing better gift that I could have expected on my blog. A BIG THANKS to you for making it so very perfect! Coincidentally it was the 4th year completion and what a way to celebrate it!

I extend my heartiest thanks to you for your gesture and efforts that you have put in to make this possible. Having book signing and releasing your first book this month 2010 is not a small thing. I understand how busy you must have been. You contributing to my blog during this rush hour of your own life, I suppose there can not be any better act of humbleness and hats off to you for that. If you could do this for someone else i.e. finding out time to publish the article and follow it closely answering to the feedbacks, then I should also at least do that for my own blog.

Thanks for giving me a reason to have a refreshing start to this blogging arena, and I hope I can take this further with all the energy that you have infused within me. You showed me that we should give our cent percent to our passion even if there are hurdles and we don't find much time to invest in our day today life. Blogging has always been my passion and I got a reasoning to pursue this ahead just because of the confidence that your post gave me.

Thanks again Sarah!

Best wishes for the release of your book and be it a huge success.

God Bless You :)

Signing off,

Abhi

P.S: Happy Birthday to Swati (one of my best friends from my College days). She happens to celebrate it on 19th of this month. My best wishes to her and may God bless her! Miss You DEAR :(

Authenticity

She runs to the woods. Removes her clothes. Drapes herself across the moss of old dreams. Spreads her legs for a sun. Counts clouds through the canopy. Mosquito-bitten thoughts. Swat, swat. This air she breathes, recycled from laughter and holocausts. Her lungs, two butterfly wings dripping with concrete.

All these words, like trees in a forest. How much rain can be cupped in their leaves? Why am I, as a writer, driven to saturate, to make the branches bend with weight?

Does it make me lighter?

Is that the goal?

Sometimes, when I read others’ work, I feel like a child.

Sometimes, when I work, I am a child.

Perhaps there’s not much value in questioning our writerly instincts and motives. Maybe this is the true self-indulgence. If we simply follow them—if we’re authentic to our voice—some new facet of truth will be integrated into the human kaleidoscope. I admire Cormac McCarthy for his cool, lean sentences. I admire Michael Ondaatje for his brilliant lyrical flights. In the past, I’ve tried to imitate such literary giants. When really, there are seeds still to plant between their mighty trunks.

I’m growing more comfortable with my strengths and limitations. My forest is mine.

Yours is a song the wind knows. 

She lifts her voice with the birds, the cicadas, the heat waves of summer.

A world spins faster. 

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Other stops on my Meet Me In Paris Blog Tour: Travis Erwin • Aniket's Plum Blossom Flash Fiction contest • 25 Questions for Author Sarah Hina  • Author Spotlight 7SS with Aerin-Bender Stone • Jaye Wells • Poem at The Walking Man's • Poem Blossoms at Joaquin Carvel's

Plum Blossoms excerpt read aloud by Sarah.

Buy Plum Blossoms in Paris • Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Flipkart • Chapters • Borders • Your Local Independent Bookstore • Powell's Books • Books-A-Million