What would you do if you knew,
really knew, that your time was finite? What would you do, for example, if you were told you had only a year left to live?
Questions like these have been asked so often in so many contexts that they've almost grown trite and cliched. Yet they were life-alteringly serious to the Portland women in late-stage ovarian cancer whose journey Diane Dennis has chronicled in her deeply moving book,
The Hourglass: How To Live As Time Flies By
.
This wasn't a book Diane planned to write (an
experience with which I profoundly identify). Rather it emerged, unexpectedly, from the ashes of a TV series that had exploded into hot tempers and legal battles after two years of planning. With that project beyond resuscitation, a distant, disembodied voice -- the voice of
her muse -- kept urging Diane to put into words what she could no longer portray visually. The result was a book described by author Anne Jackson as "remarkable" and "inspiring."
But
The Hourglass is about much more than death and dying. It's about life: Diane's life and all our lives. It's about doing more than paying lip service to the spiritual dictum that would have us live in the moment. It's a recognition that old ways of past- and future-dwelling are no longer sustainable.
From the women who pass through the pages of this book, I have learned the value and power of living in the moment. Slipping through the hourglass, they have shaped each kernel of sand into moments that count. Time gives no refunds. I have come to accept that the future is a figment of my imagination ...
And when all is said and done ... all I own, all you own, is the moment. And it is up to you and up to me to make that moment shine. I've learned to take the vast time I once wasted by dwelling on the past and forecasting my future and bestow it to each moment. Now my moments explode with love, intention, purpose and passion. Live in the moment. Please join me there.
~ Diane Dennis, The Hourglass
In this episode of
The Muse & You, you'll hear how Diane's journey and the journeys of these Portland women came to intersect and you'll discover how all those journeys are all our journeys. It's an inspiring story -- from the book's birth to all that it has to offer us in its completion. I hope you'll join me for what I know will be a profound and uplifting conversation.
As usual during the The Muse & You, I'll also offer some writing tips and inspiration and take your questions about writing and the creative process and about
me and
my books,
The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write and
The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy. We may even have time for that guided meditation for writers we didn't get to last month.
Please
tune in, and bring your questions -- for me and for Diane!
There are three ways to ask questions of my and my guests or to post comments:
• Post your questions in the show's chat room (
free Blog Talk Radio account required)
• Post your questions directly to me on
Twitter (@markdavidgerson)
• Post your questions directly to me on on my
Facebook wall The Muse & You with Mark David Gerson, is all about writing, creativity and life -- an opportunity to listen to writers and creators of all sorts talk about how and why they create and, of course, about what they create. It's also an opportunity for you to ask your questions -- of both me and my guests.
Listen to
The Muse & You with Mark David Gerson on the third Thursday of every month at 1pm ET (10am PT).
June's guest: author
Lev Raphael.
The Muse & You Show ArchiveIf you miss any live broadcast, you can listen to the archived episode, which is available immediately after each show on the show's
web page. You can also download any show directly into your computer for later listening.
Please join me Monday, Feb 28 at 7pm PT on Insights for the Soul Radio -- a 90-minute online-radio conversation about life, spirituality, creativity and the miraculous journey that weaves them all together into a luminous tapestry, with hosts Mark William Skomal and Charmaine Lee.
