I am writing scenes and summaries to structure and outline a novel. I haven’t been posting much anywhere as I have been consumed with this writing endeavor. Yet, I came across this little scene, and it reflects one of my philosophies that I picked up along the way. Thought I would write about the summary here.

I was inspired by this scene because it answered a life question for me as I was writing it.

I am a true believer that quite often, many in the social media world like to speak snake-charming words without truly understanding their meaning and their true effect, never having really lived what they talk about. We say things because they sound good and courageous, but we don’t necessarily grasp them on a lived, personal experience level.

The principle of the warrior in the garden is one of them, it sounds great but what does it mean and how do we live by it. First of all, I have always questioned the concept of a warrior – what does that entail?

Well, just by the words used, a warrior should indicate a person who wages war. However, I don’t think that is it.

A warrior is someone who fights for a righteous cause, for deep love, not mindlessly fighting. Okay, we are getting further.

In the new world we live in, this can be tricky; there are a lot of opposing forces, and quite frankly either side can argue their side, and in their own minds they are both right. Everyone in this generation seems to be in disagreement, with a clash between everything and sometimes meaningless things.

I sit in the middle, and on some issues, of course, I take a side. So, what does a warrior do? Does he fight? Does he draw his sword? Should we go on the attack?

In one of the scenes/summaries I am writing, outlining her origin and background, I typed out the following about one of my characters experience with her late father:

“Although she was a trained martial artist, she was taught by her father that her true strength was in knowing when it was worth it to fight and when it was not. Most of the things that occurred in peacetime were rarely worth using violence and harsh aggression as a means to a solution. In fact, it was our immense self-control that was the true power as a warrior. To be a warrior in the garden was his favorite quote.

A warrior doesn’t have to be afraid if all things fall apart because the warrior will be trained and ready, to the best of his abilities, and he or she can do no more than that, so what is there left to worry about? Yet in a garden, drawing a weapon is not necessary. And he always reminded her that she was in a garden, meaning most things were just thorns and weeds and nothing more. It was so cliche but it was his favorite expression.”

The questions about warriorship seem to unfold in these character interactions and answers a life question for me, and especially in the environment we live in today.

I was once taught by a mentor to go into your mind and have a chat with your future self. Writing a novel seems to be a little bit of that, characters talking to each other, but really, it’s just the author talking in character form.

Many people like to use the physical to explain how we can develop as a human being. “train hard and gain discipline!” (When I say it like that it seems very caveman like! lol) and self-development occurs, and of course, you can. Working out hard teaches you something. But writing, I find, is much harder than getting to a workout. To sit down and write thousands of words in the fabrication of thought in an imaginations that coherently tells a story of several characters that learn to sacrifice, love, hate, fight and die for, many times you question a lot if you are capable, if the story is any good but you keep going.

Yet, just like working out, the word count is visible, and the gains are happening with each word typed (or deleted). I am loving this writing process, exploring the deepest recesses of my mind in the form of a story. Yes, it’s a pretty dark and violent story that resides between these two ears and behind these eyes, but there is a lot of good and light as well, and in this I begin to know myself a little better.

Well, I paused my writing to get out this post. Time to get back to writing.

To you warriors in the garden most things that bother us are thorns and weeds we should just pluck out of our lives, focus on preparation a shelter during those rainy days, but until it rains tend to what matters most in the present and nothing else.

Much love.