What Knots

My minister recently completed a three-week trip to Bangladesh and India where he and a group of other clergymen visited various sites and spoke with members of the predominant faiths in that part of the world, one of which is Buddhism. I’m not going to delve into Buddhism. You can Google it for yourself, but I did want to touch on something he mentioned in last Sunday’s sermon, which was titled “Untying the Knots.”

When most folks think of Buddha, the picture that comes to mind is the laughing Buddha like the photo at the left. I have been looking for one of these jolly fellows for my apartment as part of the feng shui I’ve been working on. Having Buddha face the main entrance to your dwelling helps revitalize dead or negative chi (energy), relieves tension and summons fortune and riches. Rubbing the Buddha’s belly is supposed to bring good luck.

Call my crazy, but I’m very open to positive energy, good fortune and riches and less tension.

Here’s a different image of Buddha the minister used in his sermon last Sunday. Take a close look at the hands. Without an explanation I might have thought it was some sort of far eastern gang sign. However, the pundit who took their group to the site of Buddha’s first sermon explained this is the position one’s hands would be in to untie a knot.

The good reverend went on to say "the way of Buddha is about untying the knots in our lives." In our western world, we often use the expression that we’re “tied up in knots” over something.

Included in our bulletins Sunday morning was a small gift from his trip – a piece of red thread a little over three feet long with a knot tied near the middle. We were invited to put the thread on our wrist as a reminder of our faith. He also told us the Dalai Lama distributes red threads at his public audiences.

As I wrapped the thread around my wrist, I thought about all the knots I’ve had to untie over the past year. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know what I’m talking about. If not, I can sum it up in one word: divorce.

But I also started thinking of the red thread in terms of writing. When we craft a story, our characters have something they want (a goal), a reason for wanting it (motivation) and a great big knot in the red thread of their lives that keeps them from that goal (conflict).

As writers, we want to have good GMC in the story, but we also want a satisfying resolution to the story. In other words, we want that knot completely untied so our hero and heroine can live happily ever after. I'd even like to take the red thread and tie my characters together with a nice, neat bow. How we untie the knot depends on our skill as a writer and also the circumstances of the plot. But until the thread is un-knotted, the story isn’t complete and we can’t type “The End.”

With regard to the synopsis and three chapters requested by the Harlequin editor at the RWA conference week before last, I haven’t begun working on that yet. I’m still a little fuzzy from the anesthesia from my foot surgery last week, and I do not want to send off anything that could be classified as “writing under the influence.” Aliens don't need to show up in chapter fourteen.

But with regard to the other parts of my life, the untying is a work in progress. My fabulous fellow Playfriends and the Mavens have been an invaluable part of this process. My family has been behind me one hundred percent. And I leave church every Sunday with my bulletin filled with notes I’ve scribbled in response to the sermons. I like that my minister makes me think. I even appreciate that sometimes he makes me cry because it means the knots are untying and another part of my life is working through to a good resolution.

I have an extra red thread from Sunday and one lucky commenter today will get it. I don’t want you to feel like you have to bear your souls today and talk about the knotted parts of your life, so just tell me about a good book you’ve read lately and what made it so good.

I’ll go first. I’m reading RED’S HOT HONKY-TONK BAR by Pamela Morsi, which is about a woman whose life suddenly gets turned upside down when she has to take responsibility for two young grandchildren she hardly knows.