Anyone who’s read this blog recently knows my “streak” ended after two days and before the new year. It is now February 3, a good five weeks since my last entry; and I’m channeling Natalie Goldberg to get back on track.
I could blame pneumonia or the inertia pneumonia brings with it. After all if your lungs aren’t working at full capacity, the rest of your body parts suffer from lack of oxygen to do their jobs. I could blame the doldrums of January in Michigan with its grey skies, freezing temperatures, and uninspiring outlooks. Or I could just admit it: I didn’t feel like blogging under the circumstances And at my age I give myself permission not to do those optional things I don’t feel like doing.
During naps I thought of topics for blogs. Even made a list in Word. But then I closed that file and never looked back. Until today. As I dozed on the couch in front of the fireplace, I heard a voice say, “Just begin again.”
I recognized those words, because I’d written them over twenty years ago in an essay about Natalie Goldberg and her encouragement to errant writers. I was errant then; I am errant now.
Natalie’s message in Writing Down the Bones is to simply sit down, even if it’s only for ten minutes, and put words to paper. She wasn’t keen on computers back then; she championed pencil and paper as part of the process.
I rose from my nap and found the essay I’d written about her. Read it slowly and recalled that time in my life and how creatively satisfying it was. Checked Google to see if Natalie were still alive. She is.
Then I sat down and began again.
Leave a Reply