My writing came to a screeching halt.
Year after year passed, without the inspiration to write, ever emerging.
Every time I sat down to write, I couldn’t.
I came up empty.
I thought that maybe the writing chapter of my life had ended.
Then I walked out of a job in 2010.
Lots of amazing things happened that year, and I believe it was partly because I did not work during the next 6 months, that lots of amazing things happened.
I learned to meditate, after reading the book, “How God Changes Your Brain.”
Learning to meditate brought gifts.
I became a low maintenance person.
Those early years of meditation resulted in some beautiful, and hard to explain inspirations:
Minoo Jha
· 7yWhat is your most interesting meditation experience?
Hi, You asked, What is your most interesting meditation experience? After I stared meditating, I have had a few telepathic experiences. One of them was waking up in the middle of the night with a story about 3 Benches. I do not normally write fiction pieces on my blog, so it was very unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night with the idea of this 3 Benches Story. The next day I called my friend in Klamath and I asked her, “Hey Nadya, whatcha been up to?” like I usually do. I got goosebumps when she said, “Oh, I am building a bench for my backyard.” I felt the only explanation for the mysterious appearance of the 3 Benches idea in my mind was because of a telepathic experience with Nadya. By now I must have aroused your curiosity about what this 3 Benches story is all about. It took another 6 years for me to actually get down to being able to write it and publish it on my blog. Here it is. I hope you enjoy reading it. Everyone Has Their Purpose Everyone has their purpose. I just hadn’t discovered mine. We were 3 benches in a park. Bench 1 clearly knew its purpose. It was to enjoy the rich conversations and the books of the people who sat on Bench 1. Bench 1 was into mind-expanding things. Bench 1 was always going on and on about philosophy and epistemology and such, things which, if they didn’t entirely go over my head, only somewhat interested me. I am curious and I have a love for words. These two personality traits made me listen to whatever Bench 1 said. Bench 2 was clearly status-seeking, a name-dropper. Bench 2 lived for the stylish, well-heeled, and well-known people that sat on Bench 2. Bench 2 would tell you that Bench 2 occupants that day included people who wore Manolo Blahnik Hangisi shoes, or toted the most expensive Louis Vuitton bags, or drove up in a Tesla Model X P100 D. As for me, neither status, nor mind expanding ideas, excited me, or held the key to my soul. I registered everything Bench 1 and Bench 2 said. I was curious enough for that. Bench 1 and Bench 2 knew they had a perfect listener in me. So they shared everything and anything that excited them, or troubled them, with me. And I would listen. But truthfully, I was interested in an "interesting what other benches find interesting" way. I knew, there had to be something more. One day, an older woman sat on my bench and said the rosary. As she sat there, moving from bead to bead, and repeating the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, I caught a glimpse of what my purpose was. Another day, two young men sat on my bench. One of the young men had the book Awakening Loving-Kindness by Pema Chodron in his hands. He explained to the other young man what meditating on loving-kindness meant. I caught a glimpse of my purpose again. Another day, I watched a man put a mat on the grass, put his hands up, then put his right hand over his left hand, then bend down and put his hands on his knees, then stand back up and bend down, placing his knees, hands and head on the floor, all the while reciting prayers. I caught a glimpse of my purpose again. One day, two Hindu studies major students sat on my bench. One of them read this passage from the Bhagavad Gita out aloud to the other: “The man who sees me in everything and everything within me will not be lost to me, nor will I ever be lost to him. He who is rooted in oneness realizes that I am in every being; wherever he goes, he remains in me. When he sees all being as equal in suffering or in joy because they are like himself, that man has grown perfect in yoga.” I caught a glimpse of my purpose again. Another day, two Jesuit priests chose me for their bench. They spoke of wondrous things, such as St. Augustine hearing a childlike voice telling him to “take up and read”. For days after, I kept thinking about that. And then one day, it happened. A man with a backpack and a stick entered the area where our 3 benches were located. He looked weary and he looked tired and he looked disheveled and he looked unkempt. I knew he was the kind of man Bench 1 and Bench 2 would be least interested in, even revolted by. He looked at all 3 of us benches, and then made his way to where I was, even though I was the furthest bench. He put his backpack down on one end of the bench. Then, using the backpack as a pillow for his head, he sprawled across the length of the bench, covered his face with a dirty shirt, and fell into a deep sleep, from which he awoke, hours later, after which he picked up his things and left. He came back the next day and did the same thing; and he came back the day after and did the same thing again. At the end of day 3, after he had woken up and left, Bench 1 said to me: “Tough luck 3, to have a homeless guy single you out and make a habit of it.” I didn’t say anything. Bench 2 added, “Better accept it, 3. You might be stuck with him at least till the weather changes!” I didn’t say anything. If only Bench 1 and Bench 2 knew…..at last, I had found my purpose. The End Note to Readers: The original idea for this story came to me in the form of a miraculous coincidence - which happened in October of 2012, almost 6 years ago. Though I had the idea for this story 6 years ago, I wasn’t able to put it into words. So it just lingered with me, all these years, until a few days ago. Here's how it happened. On the morning of April 27, 2018, while riding the bus to work and reading a book, suddenly these words came to my mind, “Everyone has their purpose”. My mind, next inexplicably, jumped to my unwritten 3 benches story. The next thing I knew, I was writing furiously. This story, that had been waiting to be told for 6 years, got told.
I also decided to become a freelancer in my field.
That turned out to be an inspired decision.
Freelancing turned out to be both more financially rewarding for me, and more suited to me.
And on December 27, 2010, I created a blog on Google Blogger, and started writing.
My blog is now in its 16th year, and I have published 788 posts.
One of my posts is a post reflecting on my career switch from advertising copy to commissions administration, and how unthinkable that was —written from a humorous angle.
If the twists and turns in your life made you switch careers, and your second and third careers were dramatically different from your first, I think you will be able to relate to it.
