Big Sky Is Wild Mind By Natalie Goldberg Analysis

Now if you have ever read any of Natalie Goldberg’s writings, you will know that she fully believes that everything is interconnected. And this excerpt is no different. Do I believe that everything is interconnected? I suppose in a small way I do. Do I feel everything is interconnected with conscious and unconscious? No. I will attempt to explain myself further.

Ms. Goldberg writes very vividly about her surroundings. “We followed a trail along a stream that cut through pink and orange cliffs”, (Goldberg 31). She does so incredibly well so as you, the reader feel you are on the trail with her. And if you weren’t quite there with her yet, she personally invites you into her world, “Reader, even though you are not here with me, I want you to look up at the sky. Do you see it?” (Goldberg 31) She further tells us that this sky is merely a representation. “That big sky is wild mind” (Goldberg 32) and per her, this represents our unconscious mind. And the dot she figuratively paints, “I’m going to climb up to that sky straight over our heads and put one dot on it with a Magic Marker. See that dot?” (Goldberg 32), that is to

Well, let’s look at paper. Paper is made from trees. Trees need air, and water, and space, and time to grow. So they are interconnected to time and space and nutrients and growth. Then the tree must be cut and harvested to make the paper. This will require men to cut the trees, men and machines to haul the trees to factory, and yet more processes to break this tree down into useable pulp, to finally make paper with. So as you can see, there are a lot of connections that must take place to get to our final product. They all took conscious effort to obtain the end result of paper. Was there any unconscious efforts? Perhaps you will say, “Yes! The tree unconsciously grows.” I say no. And Ms. Goldberg would say support me. She states that “A river and a tree are not unconscious.” (Goldberg