{"id":43837,"date":"2023-04-30T23:12:01","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T03:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rachellerogers.com\/dev1\/?p=43837"},"modified":"2026-05-24T00:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T04:01:07","slug":"ridiculously-annoying-wordly-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rachellerogers.com\/dev1\/ridiculously-annoying-wordly-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Ridiculously Annoying Wordly Things"},"content":{"rendered":"
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30<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

APRIL 2023<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

Writing
Words
Spirituality
Wisdom Healing Qigong<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Ridiculously Annoying Wordly Things<\/h1>

by Rachelle Rogers<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n

As some of you who read my blog know, the practice of Wisdom Healing Qigong has been an important part of my life for seven years now (see Challenge, Choice, and Chi<\/a>). I recently accepted an invitation to be part of an eleven month mentorship program with my teacher Master Mingtong Gu called The Living Tao. It began on April 1st. One of the primary things we were asked to create was a Life Project, which could encompass almost anything \u2014 a service, a business, a personal endeavor, an artistic pursuit, a relationship challenge, a community involvement\u2026<\/p>\n

For me, writing on this blog, which I resurrected in February, I knew would be my Life Project. (see A Resurrection Of Words \u2013 2023)<\/a>\u00a0 But after our first mentorship gathering, I found I was being asked to consider how this project would fulfill certain requirements that Mingtong set forth. He asked us to meditate on several questions, including:<\/p>\n

\u2014 How does the project serve self-realization?
\u2014 How does it generate the expression of Essence?
\u2014 What is the goal of your Life Project?
\u2014 How does your project encourage letting go of attachment, limited identification, outcome, judgement, resistance?
\u2014 Does your project have these qualities: awareness, wisdom, creativity, love, joy, self-initiation?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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When I resurrected this blog, I kept the name LUMINATIONS, but redefined the subtitle as A Glimpse Of My Authentic Life.<\/em> I envisioned it as a reflection of my intention to express from my Essential creative self with authenticity, awareness, wisdom, love, wit, joy. I entered the endeavor with no investment in what others thought of my writing or what I posted. Of course, I hoped that some would find meaning in what I was sharing, but my goal was to stay true to expressing myself in an expansive, honest, heart-centered way, regardless of anyone\u2019s reaction. By doing this, I also made myself accountable to<\/em> myself for living off the page what I was writing on the page.<\/p>\n

But now that I had to consider these parameters for choosing this blog as my Life Project, I began to wonder if everything I write has to be \u201cspiritual?\u201d I have thoughts and notes about things I want to say that might not fit. What if I want to kvetch about something? Or if I want to wing words across a page that might not be considered \u201cevolved?\u201d I recently looked back at a couple of posts I enjoyed writing on an old short-lived blog in 2011. One called, Too Much Ally McBeal<\/em>, was about binge watching all 100 episodes of David E. Kelley\u2019s quirky dramedy. (Read\u00a0Ally<\/em> here<\/a>) Another was about the marriageable merits of Mr. Darcy versus Mr. Knightley<\/em>, more precisely, Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, and Jeremy Northam as Mr. Knightley in the respective 1995 BBC Masterpiece<\/em> and 1996 film versions of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice <\/em>and Emma.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m wondering, what if I want to write about wearing a cow\u2019s head in the gong show \u2014 satirical literary vignettes at the writers workshop I attended for nine summers, or chocolate as a main food group, or how I still binge watch not only Masterpiece<\/em> these days, but also Vera<\/em> or Shetland<\/em> on occasion? And is there no value now in writing about things that bother me?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Oh no, Black Dave, not the livestock!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Alter Eco...the best!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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As I contemplated this, I found myself having an inner dialogue with someone that sounded a lot like Spankie, my lower self.<\/p>\n

\u201cWrite whatever you want,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut complaining is something I\u2019m really intending not to do these days,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little kvetching is good for the soul,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t,\u201d I said. \u201cIt\u2019s getting myself agitated over unimportant stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWordly things like seeing double-spacing between sentences in the self-published work of people and venues I care about. Or finding punctuation outside of quotation marks. Unacceptable\u2026except in The Guardian. And Emojis!! Mingtong wants us to use emojis and other communicative icons to acknowledge each other\u2019s weekly journal entries in the Living Tao that we post on Slack. I\u2019m okay with a bird, a flower, musical notes, and hearts. I\u2019ve learned to deal with hearts. But I\u2019ve never been able to make myself use those yellow smiley, frowny faces from hell. For the most part, I can\u2019t even make them out clearly and don\u2019t understand what they mean. Seeing them makes me feel like someone scratching nails down a chalkboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy my,\u201d she said. \u201cAren\u2019t we getting fiesty?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis, from you<\/em>?\u201d I said. \u201cYou used to love a good rant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I certainly agree with you about emojis,\u201d she said. \u201cThey portray a total lack of sophistication. As far as writing goes,\u201d she went on, \u201cI say you can write about anything that comes up for you. What about the whole letting-go-of-resistance? Don\u2019t you have to let go of the resistance to writing from whatever you\u2019re feeling? If you feel miffed, be miffed. If it helps to write about it, write about it. If it doesn\u2019t, don\u2019t. Be a little daring. Unleash your quirky side. Write about the ridiculous and the sublime. It\u2019s all spiritual.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with that, she was gone.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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I\u2019ve been considering the question of what is \u201cspiritual\u201d in terms of this Life Project. What does \u201cspiritual\u201d even mean? What does it mean to be on a \u201cspiritual journey?\u201d The words have become so clich\u00e9d, yet there\u2019s really no other way to put it that would be generally understood. Besides, whether they know it or not, and whatever they may call it, or however they might define or deny it, everyone alive on this planet is on a spiritual journey. We all began as the stuff of stars.<\/p>\n

So why this dilemma over whether or not to write about certain things that annoy me? And why my recurring annoyance with these things in the first place. They don\u2019t seem to bother anyone else that I\u2019ve surveyed. Others don\u2019t even notice them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure part of my irritation comes from being a writer, editor, author. Contemporary Style Guides clearly say to use one space between sentences in published works. (Relax. Emails don\u2019t count.) Double spaces between sentences began with early typewriters when spacing between words was uneven. Now even Microsoft Word 2020 marks double spaces between sentences as an error. And the issue of punctuation inside or outside quotation marks is a matter of American (inside) versus British (outside) style. Emojis, however, are a different story. They're just totally annoying. Ha.<\/p>\n

I admit that one of my reasons for wanting to write about my visceral and self-righteous reaction to these wordly errors was hoping to find some sympathy out there. But as I actually composed these words, I began to feel a little ridiculous. As I thought more about it, I found myself (or maybe it was Spankie) remembering that when something outside of me pushes my buttons, the problem is almost always a reflection of something within me. I knew I had to dig deeper and discover exactly what that was.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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As I traced the feelings inwards, I saw that errors in publications from people and venues whose work I admire and support and recommend, bother me because not using proper formatting looks unprofessional. I become concerned for their reputation. I want everyone to think well of those I care about. I don\u2019t want them to be judged, as if I<\/em> could know that would happen, or that it's any of my business. This is what\u2019s not \u201cspiritual.\u201d This idea of me wanting to \u201cfix\u201d something for someone else, something that most likely isn't even an issue for them.<\/p>\n

Painful scenarios of past times when I felt I\u2019d totally embarrassed myself by my own ignorance or naivety and was judged, or felt judged, as incompetent and unprofessional drifted through my memory. Reliving these experiences wasn\u2019t fun, but I was ultimately able to let them go. And as I did, I also felt the need to loosen the grip of this ridiculous obsession. Yay, another letting go.<\/p>\n

For now, I\u2019m going to listen to Spankie\u2019s advice and write about whatever it moves me to write about, especially since I\u2019ve discovered that even if I begin with an idea that might sound \u201cunspiritual,\u201d my Inner Self guides me to the deeper truth, and that's worth sharing.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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← <\/span>Being Happy For No Reason<\/span><\/a><\/span>A Letting Go and A Reclaiming<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n