Forrest Curran
Today I am very proud to welcome Forrest Curran, founder of the Purple Buddha Project, to my blog. Forrest in a truly inspiring young man from Tokyo who is living his dream of traveling around Asia and spreading wisdom and empowerment through his personal and social media presence! Please enjoy today’s very special guest post
Pens & Pencils
When kids start learning how to write in kindergarten, the teacher hands the child a pencil, not a pen. The reason being, the teacher knows that the child is going to mess up and is probably going to have to erase, rewrite, erase, rewrite a couple of times before the writing looks more like characters than hieroglyphics. After doing that for so many times, the child is eventually going to get used to the whole idea of writing and would essentially have “mastered” this skill.
As we grow older, having “mastered” basic skills previously in life, we begin expecting ourselves to use pens instead of pencils, quickly becoming impatient and throwing away the whole piece of paper if too many mistakes are involved. The ink of a pen is permanent, however when we write in our book that we call “life”, mistakes are an inevitable aspect of writing the book. We as the author sometimes go back on what we initially planned to write, sometimes we accidentally write the wrong scenario, and at times accidentally forget an important character or two. That’s just how writing a story is, and the story of life is no different.
When we write in the book that defines our life, it’s with a pen rather than pencil, we cannot go back in life and redo or erase certain things as we would when writing with a pencil with an eraser top. Remember how teachers would tell you “not to judge a book by its cover”? Well it’s the same inside, as the most extraordinary lives lived and the most interesting books of them all are the books filled with sentences crossed out, red marks blotching pages upon pages, and resembles more or less abstract artwork then a book. Luckily in our book though, the main character is able to meet new characters, make improved decisions from past mistakes, and create the ending for themselves. It’s a bit more like a diary rather than a book in a way, for only the author themselves could fully appreciate and understand the gravity of each page, each obstacle, and each happy moment. We cannot erase the ink of a pen for better or worse, but be not afraid of creating mistakes in the writings; as each blotch, cross-out, and each side note has its own story that adds to the richness in our books.
Namaste,
Forrest Curran.
