It Takes Only One

By Guest Blogger: MJ Harden

I’ve known I can write since I was eight years old when I was a “reporter” for our community newsletter. Since then, I’ve written articles, books, brochures, websites, ads, travel guides . . . you get the idea. It’s easy for me to write. But I never wondered what I was supposed to write. If you have a talent, perhaps you should ask why.

Completing the World As Only You Can

This light-bulb moment did not occur to me until I was 40 years old. I grew tired of the mundane scribbling I was doing and I finally asked out loud:

“Tell me what you want and I will do it.”

I repeated the question at dawn and dusk for three days. I then hiked into Maui’s powerful volcanic crater, Haleakala, and shouted the question into the silence.

“Tell me what you want and I will do it.”

I trekked down 3,000 feet, kept my mind open and by the time I hit the crater floor, I had it: “It Takes Only One” to do the job you are meant to do. One person can make a difference in the world.

As the Hindu Monkey God, Hanuman, says in the book: “Too few know who they are, and, that their own journey makes a difference in the world. If you are yourself, from the core of your being, you complete the world as only you can.”

The main hero, a literary Everyman, journeys through the myths and legends of global cultures on an adventure into self knowledge, encountering characters like Hanuman, beloved the world over, all of them sharing wisdom with this young spirit, and all of them assuring that “It Takes Only One” to do the job you were born to do.

Discovering my “EveryMan”

But who would this main character be? I did not want a boy or a girl or a cat, or a Croatian-French-Malaysian-Ugandan. I knew I’d ruin the idea by being politically correct. And then Haleakala whispered my answer: a baby’s ascending spirit. A baby wears a diaper, so no gender is evident. A spirit has no skin color or nationality. This baby is Greece’s original idea of Everyman, representing all of humanity in our search for meaning.

The Journey of It Takes Only One

It Takes Only One (ITOO) was in no hurry to be written. In starts and stops, dribs and drabs, the book spoke to me through two decades. It went on the back burner year after year, then a walk in California’s redwoods empowered the trees to share their wisdom, and thus a chapter burst through. Months later, Gilgamesh of Mesopotamia had to have his say. The Oracle at Delphi was in a manic rage to make her points, and that certainly shocked me.

Mystery & Magic

I was trained in straight journalism, and suddenly whammo: I’m spouting Scottish words as a Celtic witch. Then, Lewis Carroll’s cadence comes through me in ITOO’s Alice chapter. Mark Twain’s humor and drawl are evident in trickster punks Huckleberry Finn, Coyote and Raven.

All these characters and more arrived in my head through mystery and magic. One morning, wondering how to journey to the next chapter, I obliviously opened a book of folklore on the precise page for Simorgh, a legendary, giant Persian bird. I’d never heard of her, but now we would fly on Simorgh’s back from her nest in the Tree of Life to ancient Greece. Serendipity became my norm.

Saving the World as Only You Can

ITOO’s ending, my last words, were written on a deserted beach on Moloka’i Island. On my final day there, I woke to the news that Maya Angelou died. And so, as the sun came up over the Pacific, I walked the beach and asked her spirit for help, and I believe I got it. I love ITOO’s ending, delivered via the wisdom of Merlin, Camelot’s great wizard.

“Go forth and become yourself.”

About the Author: MJ Harden

After years of travel writing, MJ’s first book was a guidebook to Maui, her home since 1984. She followed this with a book of interviews with renowned Hawaiian elders (Voices of Wisdom Hawaiian Elders Speak). She also penned a documentary on Hawaiian history and culture for the opening of the Smithsonian’s American Indian Museum.  

All her books, including her latest,  It Takes Only One, (described above) can be purchased on Amazon.