Truth from Within!

Tomás and I walked around these hills where we live this morning after a night of deluge—blessed rainfall of 2-3/10ths inches! The stream in the ravine still runs vigorously, the waterfalls roar wonderfully! Paradise Garden has never looked greener or more lush. All sorts of things bloom now—plus my new Egyptian Blue Lotus, which has put out its 3^rd leaf will likely a blossom soon.

At any rate, as we walked the sun came in and out from passing clouds, birds chirped, and a gorgeous day unfolded around us.

We talked about my friend Nils Taranger, and his upcoming feature film, A Blue Flower, which depicts his amazing personal odyssey of self-acceptance and expanding conscious awareness, and also offers deeper universal wisdom for anyone who watches it.

“I like the fact that Nils learns things from many sources,” I said “but he seems to primarily trust his own experience. He continues to ground himself in his own experience, his life, his body, and he tests what he perceives in the world around him against the reflection of what’s within him.”

“That’s where it all comes from,” Tomás said. “The truth, I mean. It comes from within you. Not out there.” He gestured broadly and smiled, as we paused to catch our breath on an extremely steep bit of the road, as vertical as it is horizontal, and we enjoyed the splendid view.

“That’s what makes a story true,” I said. “whether it’s fiction or not. When a writer is truly inspired, just following imagination, not thinking but recording it as fast as you can write. Anne Rice writes like that, ‘white hot inspiration,’ I think she’s called it. In that sense her stories are true.”

“You can feel the essential truth, even if it’s not literally true. Not the surface details, so much as the core of it is true.”

“Anne’s latest, The Wolf Gift, is as good as anything she ever wrote for that reason. It’s totally inspired. It’s so vivid, it’s already like a movie.”

“Your stories are the same, Bruce.*”

“Well, I don’t compare myself with her. But it’s true that I don’t think about my stories until final revisions, I just follow the imaginative flow of inspiration.”

Tomás grinned. “Like you always say, ‘Human beings are just animals that tell themselves stories.’ ”

“Yeah, that could be the only thing that distinguishes us from other animals. It’s a two-edged sword, of course. Sometimes wonderful, other times it’s limiting. Stories are Real Magick!”

*Attached is a photo of the recently completed painting I did as cover art for my 3^rd novel, Moontusk: The Return of Othis, due from Lethe Press later this year.

See also Nils's site: http://www.ablueflower.com/