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Voices Out Loud

Chris Rock was amazing at the Oscars last night. It was a tough if not near impossible job to write and deliver jokes about a very serious issue: diversity in Hollywood specifically, but more broadly, the larger racial divide ingrained in our American culture that limits true opportunity and growth. His performance will have people talking for awhile and with good reason.

Another powerful moment from the evening: Lady Gaga. I had chills and tears and all the uncomfortable reality that was her performance and what it means. Her song, “Til it Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground, a documentary on campus rape in the United States, was a stirring moment giving voice to silent victims, many of whom stood on stage with her last night.

Then Spotlight took the somewhat surprising win for Best Picture. A film about real-life journalists doggedly pursuing a story of the Catholic church’s cover-up of child molestation in Boston. Not only is it a story that lauds real reporting and journalism, but speaks up for the child victims of an unspeakable horror.

Buried in the middle somewhere was the powerful statement from documentary short subject winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy that her film, Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, about honor killings inspired the Pakistani government to take action against this horrific violence.

These are voices that all need to be heard. Desperately. Stories about real deep, dark truths that affect countless people across the globe. Movies, books, music, theater, dance. The arts all seek to illuminate a greater truth, to tell an untold story, to give voice to the voiceless. And we are all better for hearing and seeing these stories.

On this eve to Super Tuesday I was greeted by numerous television ads this morning attempting to sway our votes. These ads all spoke of fear and pointed fingers of blame at their opponents. The touchstones weren’t hope, they were anger and anxiety, name calling and vitriol. What a strange counterpoint to an evening where stories about overcoming, about hope, about joy, about change, about acceptance, about accountability were celebrated. Yes, these stories point out problems. Yes, these stories are not solutions. But no, these stories are not meant to send us cowering into bunkers or heading for borders to escape the decline of the American state. These stories give voice to those unable to speak for themselves. This election? So far, all I can tell is that it’s allowing more loud and angry voices to perpetuate the same rhetoric of fear that keeps the real voices silenced.

The real voices. Our voices.

I, for one, am tired of hearing the same voices over and over again. I stand with those whose voices are whispered in the quiet space. The voices of calm truth often drowned out by the tornadoes of cynicism, misogyny, racism, bigotry and greed. The voices we heard last night were only a few of the small fighting amidst the cacophony. We need artists, writers, movie makers, and playwrights to continue to tell stories. All the stories. The funny ones and the allegorical ones and most especially the hard ones.

But as movie goers or readers or simply citizens moving through our own daily stories, we have an obligation to use our own voice.

Vote.

The voices are shouting at us. But we are part of the conversation. Unfortunately, we aren’t heard unless we use our voice. The out loud one. The one that can be counted.

Be counted. Vote.

Tell your story. Create.

We all have a voice.

Forcing Creativity

Writing a book is not a unique pursuit. There are many of us writers out there going about day jobs, pounding away on keyboards at night, at dawn or at the kid’s baseball practice. The difference between those that succeed in actually becoming a published writer and those that do not – I have been told and cling to as if these words might keep me afloat in a flood – is simply writing. It’s that easy. One verb: write.

I have an E.L. Doctrow quote pinned over my desk that says:

Planning to write is not writing. Outlining a book is not writing. Researching is not writing. Talking to people about what you are doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.

E.L. Doctrow

Or, as the old Yoda adage goes:

Do or do not. There is no try.

Yoda

And yet, for some reason, writers still find this hard. I, for one, now picture myself doing nothing but this job of writing and yet each morning I sit down at my computer and think “Oh, God. Not this again. I suck at this. I should go scrub the shower instead. Or get a “real job.” Or maybe take a nap.”

Instead, I try to start typing. Sometimes it works (yesterday I knocked out 1,300 words in two hours – hooray!). Sometimes it doesn’t (the day I wrote one sentence in two hours- ouch). But even when it isn’t working, I’m working. I’m there, committed, waiting for the muse, the inspiration, the tiny train of thought that will show me where we’re going.

Can you force creativity? Can you demand that inspiration join you on the page? How much of a creative pursuit is in our own control versus the elusive muse? And what happens if she doesn’t show up?

Creating, whether it’s writing or painting or photography or building, takes practice, time and a whole helluva lot of behind the scenes work that you probably don’t want to know about. It takes commitment and stamina. It is not for the feint of heart. It is a soul-wrenching, doubt-whispering, self-flagellating process that leaves the creator empty and beaten until they take a step away. It’s in the step back, when we take a look at that painting or re-read that essay or reconsider a photograph’s lighting, that we realize somewhere in all that work there was magic, muse, inspiration. We then become Michaelangelo and must work to free the sculpture from the morass.

This month, I am working on creating the morass. I have committed to writing 20,000 in the current work in progress for the Women’s Fiction Writer’s Association Write-A-Thin. I am no stranger to gimmicks to get me working. Back in 2010, I did NaNoWriMo. I am not the only one. More than 325,000 writers and growing participate in NaNoWriMo each year. Because sometimes you need someone to hold you accountable. Because sometimes you need a kick in the pants. Because most of us don’t have a Yoda whispering in our ears. But mostly because inspiration, magic, muses, whatever you call them, they don’t show up unless you invite them.

I sit at the keyboard again today and wonder will today be the day the words run out (no)? Will I cry (possibly)? Will it work today (maybe)? Will it be worth it (damn straight)? Thankfully, every morning when I drag my feet to the desk and grunt as I open the work in progress, I have a husband who reminds me “it’s not supposed to be easy.” And he’s right. Through all of the struggle, I still love it. I still love seeing that perfect phrase emerge in a string of keystrokes on my screen. I still love when my characters surprise me. I still love when I finally find the answer to what my protagonist does for a living and it fits so absolutely perfectly no matter how small a role it may play in the book. I still love realizing that two hours passed and I had no idea. I still love the potential, the promise, the process. Even when I hate it. Maybe especially when I hate it.

The point? We can’t all wait for inspiration to strike. It’s simply unfeasible. Yes. It happens. And when it does, it’s wonderful and fantastic and pure magic. But more often than not, we have to remember to invite inspiration. And the only way to do that is to start the work and see what happens.

This month, I’m inviting my muse to join me daily as I work towards my 20,000 word goal.

To all of you out there who are struggling with your own creative pursuits, perhaps you need a gimmick, a challenge, a Yoda to keep you accountable. Whatever it is, find it. Promise it. Pin it to your wall. Do it.

Writing is writing.

Do or do not.

I am right here with you.

Finding Forty

I just turned forty.

I have a distinct memory of a surprise fortieth birthday party for my father when I was in the fifth grade. We decorated with a myriad of black balloons and over the hill decor. I thought forty was so old.

Now here I am. Forty.

And I don’t feel old. If anything, I feel a little weird to wear the forty badge when most days I still feel as insecure as my seventeen year old self. I wonder if there should be a test to see whether you have truly earned forty. Not just in physical time, but experience and growth. In a novel, a character is supposed to change or learn something about himself. I feel that maybe by forty, I should have learned more, changed more, done more.

Forty.

The first forty were momentous, to say the least. I learned to walk, talk, eat, read, write, add, ride a bike, drive a car, kiss a boy, make friends. I left home and went to college. I fought and won and lost. I got married, moved to DC, bought our first house, met some of the most incredible people I have had the joy of working with not to mention call mentors and friends. I attended showers and weddings and lots of early morning media tours with cold control rooms and bad coffee. I have celebrated weddings and births and said final goodbyes to two grandparents, an uncle, a mentor and a dear friend who was too young to leave us behind. I moved to Atlanta. I had two beautiful baby boys who are the sparkle to my every day. I stepped away from my career. I stood by family and friends as they fought disease, divorce and the occasional abyss of depression and anxiety. My body has made it through three surgeries, two child births, and one horrifying night with a crash cart. I have said yes even when it was scary. I took a leap of faith to honor the career I’ve always wanted. I have written a book.

Forty.

Halfway to 80, which is a life.

I stand on the precipice of this hill. It’s a wonderful view. Behind me I see strength in others and myself that I didn’t realize was there. I see faith and love and courage. I see how far I’ve come and how far I have yet to go. Ahead of me, I see bigger challenges. I see my boys becoming young men. I see the work ahead for securing this new career in writing. I see my forties as being the opportunity to live the life I’ve been building. I see a freedom in taking these lessons and living unapologetically, deliberately, purposefully.

Forty.

I continue moving. Not just because time continues on like a treadmill and I have no choice but to take another step or fall on my face, but because I choose to. I choose to keep walking my path and seeing what is next. The first forty gave me the skills I need for the next forty. What a wonderful place to be: armed and ready and open to receiving the next thing, the thing I can’t predict.

Forty.

So maybe I am over the hill like those old decorations taunted my own father. But I can’t wait to see what’s on the hill behind this one. And the one after that. If the first forty is any indication, it promises to be quite the journey.

Forty.

Forward.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I’m not going to lie. I have had a hard time with the start of this new year. I don’t know if it was because of the holiday whirlwind with two boys, our trip home to NC smack in the middle allowing no mental down time or the fact that 40 is staring me down later this month (40? really?), but I was feeling very stuck. I didn’t have a resolution. I didn’t have a goal. I didn’t seem to have much but an “oh crap, it’s January already and there was so much I didn’t do in 2015 and so much I want to do in 2016 and so much I don’t know how to do all the time and every day” feeling and then my brain would shut down.

Thankfully, returning home opened something and thoughts slowly started to bubble. Following the thoughts came a few ideas. They might not be flowing as quickly and consistently as I’d like, but they are tumbling around softly under the bed with the dust bunnies in the hopes that they become true, real and solid soon so that I can take them out and truly understand them.

The boys finally went back to school today and I was both eager and apprehensive about reclaiming my writing time. I am ready to get to work on manuscript two, but am still lacking a direction. I have a bunch of loose threads that someday I know (hope?) will be a beautiful sweater, but right now are simply an intimidating pile of cloth spaghetti. I have characters I can’t completely connect in my mind. I have motivations that aren’t driving anyone anywhere. I have too many and too few ideas all at once. I also have manuscript one that needs to be addressed. There are new agents to query and more business to be done to that end. Add to that my attempts to build up my freelance writing work and I can feel my brain starting to power down in retreat.

Back in November, with a number I didn’t like popping up on the scale, I decided to tackle something else that I fear. Running. I’m not a runner. I have always looked at it with some level of romance. It looks so freeing, liberating, graceful. It’s just you and your feet. The pavement. The path in front of you. But in reality, I always ended up sucking wind and bent over with a stitch in my side.

I did some research and finally downloaded the Couch to 5K app. The first three weeks were great. Not easy, but I liked it. I looked forward to it. I was proud of my accomplishments. I was doing it.

Then week four came. The week of Christmas. With it’s impossibly difficult looking long stretches of running. And it rained. And kept raining. And we were busy. A lot. And the kids were home. All day. And then we were out of town. But I packed my running shoes and one day the rain stopped and I went out. Halfway through, I tripped over a curb and wiped out. Gloriously. I scraped my hip and banged up my elbow and proceeded to sink into a very soggy patch of mud that was pretending to be grass. I limped my way home, wet, disappointed that it had been hard, but even more frustrated that I didn’t have the opportunity to finish. And so I shelved the shoes until today.

Today, with the scrapes and bruises finally fading, I ran. Even though it’s freezing out. And it was hard. And I cheated one of the runs a little because it was uphill, but I stuck with it. I closed out that last running segment even though I was cursing and creeping at a snail’s pace and my lung’s were burning and I was desperate to stop.

I wonder why it is that I can push myself physically, but find it oh so tempting to give up mentally (as it pertains to my writing)? I told myself over and over as I neared the end of my run today that I can do anything for one more minute. And I did. I know that every step I take is another step forward. That eventually my stride will be surer, my pace faster, my legs stronger. I know I don’t have to be perfect today because I’m training. My body is learning. If I keep doing the thing, I get better. Knowing that I finished today has me already looking forward to Friday when I know that I will repeat today’s run and maybe not have to cheat that hill. Because I know I can finish. Because I already did.

This year, I need to look at my writing in the same way. I need to recognize that the first novel is what it is. That it’s training. It might sell and it might not. And that’s okay. Because this next book will be better as a result of the first. Writing this book still won’t be easy, but every word is another word forward. Every scene I scribble now will help me to develop a stronger voice, a more vivid setting, a more solid plot. I don’t have to know all the answers, but all that’s holding me back doesn’t get solved by sitting on the couch/checking social media/avoiding the hard stuff/over-volunteering.

So I’m resolving to making a writing training plan. I will not spend today continuing to stare at the blank page and wait for a sweater to appear (especially if it is actually supposed to be a scarf). I will decide how my days need to be organized to maximize creative time, research time, manuscript one query time and freelance time. I will create a plan to beef up my chops in areas I found particularly difficult in writing the first book. I will set realistic goals – maybe I need to make some kind of Blank Page to 85K Words app? – and not beat myself up over cheating a few hills.

There’s a movement this year for creating your one word theme instead of a list of resolutions you’re bound to break by the end of the month. I like this idea of a theme for the year, a quick mental reminder to keep me on track in all aspects of life, love and parenting. To get to my word, I wrote down a general list of things I wanted to do this year: WRITE, RUN, PLAY, LAUGH, TRY, ACCEPT CHALLENGES, MOVE. All great things. All things that encompass more specific goals I have for the year. But what did they have in common?

What I came up with to sum up these goals for 2016 is my one word: FORWARD.

This year, I will stop mentally beating myself into stagnation. Instead, I will lace up. I will type. I will explore. I will search. I will seek. Whatever it is I need to do to keep moving forward.

Forward for 40. Let’s do this 2016.

After all, I can do anything for one more minute, one more hour, one more day, one more week, one more month, one more year.

What’s your one word for 2016?

Growing Pains

As a tween (although I don’t think we called it that back in the 80s) and teen, I would often suffer from a painful ache in my legs that my parents would chalk up to growing pains. The discomfort was real. The pain acute. I’d lay in my bed at night or the couch during the day and imagine my bones stretching, straining against the ligaments, muscles and skin holding them in, trying to make me taller while the rest of my body reluctantly made room.

I’m in a similar period of discomfort. This time it’s not in my limbs or my hormones or imagined slights in the lunch room like it was in those days. Now it’s related to my writing.

A second project has creeped up on me. An idea that when I first started following it down the rabbit hole was new, invigorating and burst with excitement like champagne bubbles fizzing to the surface. Now, it feels dark and cramped and stinks of damp earth.

Writing has always been easy for me. Essays and term papers, feature articles, press releases. It all came quickly from my fingers. There wasn’t a lot of discomfort once I understood the rules. Scribbling in journals and filling pages with words has always been a source of comfort for me, not discomfort. Writing the first novel was hard. It wasn’t easy. It felt challenging, but not uncomfortable. Putting it out into the world and allowing others eyes on it made me feel vulnerable and displayed, but not inherently uncomfortable.

But the more distance I have to it, the more my discomfort grows. There is the rejection and, even worse, radio silence, from agent queries. There is the distance to the story that makes me wonder if I rushed it and need to rewrite whole sections. There are the second thoughts about process and talent and choices I’ve made to create this writing life.

All distinctly uncomfortable feelings. All making the act of sitting down to focus on this new idea inherently uncomfortable, too. And so I have hesitated. I have buried myself in research and other tasks. I have avoided pen to paper because it suddenly doesn’t feel right, natural, easy, comfortable.

Just when I was beginning to feel the dark walls of serious doubt close in, I finished reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. She talked about how feeling uncomfortable is what leads to growth. It’s where the discomfort is that the growth happens, like my stretching adolescent legs.

Here, where I sit, at my desk, at this keyboard, this is where the growth happens. The discomfort is simply the recognition that I could be doing better. That I need to do better. That better is possible. That better is not only possible, but possible through me. That doing and learning and continuing will lead to growth. It won’t always feel good, and probably shouldn’t, but it will lead to newness and innovation and better writing on the other side.

So I am letting the discomfort stay. I am getting used to the lump it causes in my throat when I sit at the keyboard. I am taking the research more seriously again instead of simply as an excuse. I am looking back at the notes I took during this new idea’s germination and letting that excitement settle back in.

But the discomfort will need to stay. It is pushing me in new and different directions. It is forcing me to grow as a person and as a writer.

And recognizing that discomfort, acknowledging its purpose, I have to say, is actually pretty comforting.

Gifts that Keep Giving

I manage a small creativity circle – a group on Facebook where other creatives get together and share thoughts, ideas, work, questions, whatever. Each month we have a theme to provide some loose guidance and then we see where we end up. For me, it’s provided an opportunity for new thought. When I’m out running errands or cooking or contemplating what’s next with my writing, it gives me a jumping off point, a new perspective, a sense of presence when my thoughts scatter.

This month, the theme is gifts. I posted a question yesterday about what gift would you give your creative self this holiday season. I was surprised, although I probably shouldn’t have been, that many of the answers were chore related. Folks wanted someone to do their laundry, cook and clean so that they would have time to focus on their creativity.

I am so very guilty of this, too. I allow the mundane chores to impede on my creative time. Often. It’s tempting to straighten the kitchen or fold the laundry or run the errands because at the end these are tasks that are completed, that you can see, that are crossed off a list. There is an immense sense of satisfaction and ease when they are completed. They feel socially acceptable.

When I had a work outside the home job, however, if the dishes weren’t done after breakfast and waited in the sink until I got home from my commute in the evening, nobody suffered. I didn’t think about them while I was away at work. I didn’t worry what those dishes in the sink said about me – other than I was a busy working woman who didn’t have time to finish the dishes before hopping the train to the city.

So why are creative tasks less worthy to wait than for the “day job?” Why do we put off our creative tasks? Is the clean house or the folded laundry worth so much more to us? Can’t they wait a bit longer? Won’t they still be there after?

I think we devalue our creative time. As much as we crave it and need it, we feel selfish about it. Or at least I do. I feel selfish that what feeds my soul and brings me the most joy is this solitary pursuit in front of a keyboard or a notebook. I have to remind myself that being selfish isn’t always a negative. I should be selfish about finding time to nurture myself and my creativity. For one thing, it’s the “job” I’ve given myself right now and for another, it makes me happy. It makes me productive. It makes me better at the rest of it. It is what makes me me.

Doing the dishes, while satisfying to complete, will simply need to be done again after the next meal. Taking a few minutes to sketch, journal, paint, photograph or read will nurture me in a way that no chore list can.

What is holding us back? Chances are its an individual answer, but I don’t think it’s really the dishes. The dishes are the distraction or, more likely, an excuse. (More on that in the next few days).

So I want to challenge my circle friends, and the rest of us, to think outside the to-do list and really contemplate what you would give to your creative self to nurture that piece of you. Would it be a trip to an exotic location to paint strange flowers? A day in the city to photograph architecture? A morning in the art museum to stand in front of your favorite work and find something new in it? A walk through a garden to awaken your senses of touch and smell? A beautiful journal for scribbling out those random bits of epiphany that come in between your daily moments? Season tickets to the local symphony? Signing up for dance classes or singing lessons? A few hours spent in the airport pick-up area people watching?

Use your imagination. You might not be able to spend the money or take the time for some of these gifts. That’s okay. It’s important to know what those big dreams are so we can recognize the smaller opportunities to feed our creativity on a more daily basis. Can’t get to the Galapagos Islands? No worries – maybe see what your local botanical garden or zoo have to offer. Can’t afford season tickets to the symphony? Check your nearby college’s concert and recital schedules. No time to commit to dance lessons? You probably have five minutes for a living room dance party.

And don’t worry. The dishes will wait.

Learning to Write From my Kindergartner

Somehow I lost October and November. Sixty-one days evaporated from my calendar. Erased like dust in an etch-a-sketch. There one minute. Gone the next.

Between the great kitchen renovation project of 2015 followed closely on its heels by Thanksgiving, two months are a blur of construction dust, paint fumes, shopping and chopping.

December eased its way in this week and I welcomed it with open arms. I felt wide eyed and eager. Ready to return to the page and suss out the next work.

Yet, somehow, I’ve been as bad as the boys when I tell them to go brush their teeth and I find them in their room half undressed reading books or picking at the peeling skin on the bottoms of their feet claiming they were too distracted to do what I’d asked.

I’ve allowed myself to be distracted by holiday planning, grocery runs, Facebook, that episode of reality television on my DVR. It’s like I’ve lost all the discipline and work I’ve built up over the last year and am starting all over again.

Which I’m not. I have ideas. Too many ideas. Ideas seemingly so disparate I can’t figure out how they match up yet. And so I ignore them instead of sitting with them. Which is what I should be doing. Sitting with them. Listening to their whispers. Allowing them to marinate until they culminate into something.

But I’ve lost my trust. Part of it is the first work. As more distance is between me and it, I wonder if it’s “THE” work. The right work. The best work. It might be. But this idea of another. A new. A next. Maybe that’s where the magic is? Or not. Or maybe the magic is years from now and all of this is just training.

My six year old has been periodically writing a series of books (I think he’s up to six now) about a character he created called “Horsey Borsey.” Now Horsey Borsey tends to have adventures very similar to trips we take or events happening in our lives. He doesn’t let the fact that he just learned to read or that he can’t spell very many words stop him. He sits down and writes these stories as best he can. It might be a book of 20 pages where Horsey Borsey eats a lot of breakfast, then lunch, then dinner, then goes to bed before waking up to repeat it all again and again (and maybe even again) before the end. But he keeps writing. He writes and draws and staples them and then reads them over and over again.

I need to write like my six year old. Like I don’t know what I’m doing and that it doesn’t matter. That the mistakes and the repetition and the simplicity are part and parcel of the work.

For B, it’s all good. He knows that there will always be another Horsey Borsey book waiting to be written. And so he keeps writing them. Because that’s what he does.

I need to trust the momentum and keep moving forward. I need to trust my own fingers to deliver these new ideas and characters to a new page.

I need to keep writing. Because that’s what I do.

Distractions be damned.

(Right after lunch… )

Motherhood: You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up

Tomorrow is the annual Kindergarten Character Parade at my son’s school. T went as James from James and the Giant Peach when he was a wee one. B decided to go as a crayon from The Day the Crayons Quit (because we LOVE it and The Day the Crayons Came Home!).

Imagine my delight that my child picked a character for which I already have a costume. T was a red crayon for Halloween many moons ago and I knew I had seen the costume, touched it with my own two hands, sometime in the last six months. Easy peasy. Done. No fuss, no muss, no money.

I proceeded to check the closets. The dress-up drawer. The craft cabinet. No dice. I waited. I checked the attic (read, the hubby checked the attic). The closet again. The bags in the closet. The coat closet. The dress-up drawer again. The linen cabinet. The bench at the end of my bed under the extra blanket. Nothing. I checked everything one more time even though I had checked it all before.

Nada. No crayons.

So, I retrieved the random navy blue pillow case I found from a set of sheets we no longer have and felt that this was miracle enough. An extra pillow case. I’ll just make another. And so I went to the craft store and found felt the perfect color blue to match and black fabric paint for the pillow case. I painted on the logo and the stripes. I let it dry. I turned it over this afternoon and painted the stripe on the back side.

While it dried, I decided to tackle the hat. I’d need something to put the felt on. Perhaps we had an extra birthday hat in the craft cabinet. The craft cabinet is a little bit of a mess. I took out a few things I knew I wanted to add to my current donation pile. I checked between the extra paper, behind the rocket building set box, with the collection of gift bags. No birthday hats. No worries, I have to run to the grocery later today anyway, I can pick one up or grab some poster board. But before I go, I should really see if I have any elastic or ribbon to keep the hat on. I decided to rummage around in the bin with the paints since a few other random bits tend to find their way there. And there, under an extra Christmas shirt box and a giant birthday bow was…

(Oh yeah. You guessed it. Even though I already checked this cabinet and swear I nosed around in that very same paint bin)

…the damned red crayon costume.

The paint isn’t even dry on the blue one I just finished.

If I had wine in the house (which I don’t because it’s on the stupid grocery list), I’d be pouring myself one right now, decorum and good sense be damned.

Motherhood.

Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This

Yesterday was a bad day. I felt it easing in on Wednesday afternoon. Motivation slowly ebbing. The funk descending. By yesterday morning, it had full on settled, weighing down my shoulders, slowing my footsteps. It was going to be one of those days.

We are two weeks into a small kitchen renovation. Although the work is coming along and I can see how beautiful it will be when it’s done and the crew is polite, friendly and super conscientious, it is still wearing on my mental sanity. The entire contents of our kitchen have been relocated with the bulk of the “stuff” perched and propped on every surface in my office. Bookshelves are lined with coffee cups and crystal. A giant box containing our new vent hood is behind my chair. The bench next to my desk boasts a giant basket overflowing with plastic cups and water bottles and random bits shoved in between while underneath are stacks of cookie sheets and pots and lids perched precariously in my giant roasting pan.

I can practically feel the walls closing in. There is not a pleasing spot to look at in here right now and the physical clutter has started to manifest itself mentally. I can’t keep a thought, make a decision, carry through on a task. I spent yesterday running around town in search of a canvas art piece for a specific spot in the new and improved kitchen and then hours (no joke) online (and yes, I’m still looking. You know, when you have something in mind and need a specific size it’s IMPOSSIBLE to find what you need? That’s me.). By the end of the day, I realized I had not really had a fully formed thought run through my brain all day other than – oh, here’s Pier 1, guess I’ll stop in here and check.

Then came a rejection letter. I normally would have let this one go. It was a long shot agent of a very well respected writer I admire, but our books aren’t entirely similar, so I knew it most likely wouldn’t be a great fit (and that’s essentially what she told me in her very nice letter), but it just dug in under my rib cage yesterday and sat with the fog.

When the kids came home from school and I nearly jumped with joy that there was no homework allowing me to do the minimum. I went through the motions. I chopped the vegetables for the soup. I corralled them outside. I chatted with my sister. But through it all, I was just blah. Unmotivated. Empty. Depleted.

And so I didn’t beat myself up. I just let it sit. I wallowed in the nothingness for a bit. I let it ride. Some days are just like that. Some days we’ve given all we can. Some days the busyness of life catches up and our minds and souls need to turn it off and rest for a bit. I think that’s what mine did yesterday because this morning I woke up refreshed. So I swept.

There is only so much cleaning that can be done around this renovation project when so much is in physical disarray, but sweeping I can do. And so I did. I swept the dust bunnies out of the corners, the LEGO’s out from under the couch, the breakfast crumbs from under the table. And as I worked, I swept yesterday up in with the floor detritus and dumped them all into the trash.

I sat down at the desk. The desk that is the only surface in this office I have protected, and have knocked off some tasks, made lists of new ones, felt the tickle of inspiration deep in my brain again.

It seemed like no coincidence when this tiny sparkle of brilliance from Anne Lamott popped up in one of my feeds this morning .

We all need to be self-aware to our self-care. There have been plenty of “those” days that I have been cruel to myself, pushed and prodded and judged myself for my failures. Luckily, I didn’t do that this time. And today, I am better for it. And yesterday is gone, in the past, done. There is no changing it and no need to. Something in my soul needed quiet yesterday and I’m hoping that it received what it needed.

Today? Today I can control. Today, I swept. Today, I wrote. Today, I opened the windows to let the air in. Later, I will play with my kids and chat with my neighbors and make plans for the weekend. And when the time comes, I will unplug again and let my soul and mind reset so that I can get back to the work at hand.

Permission, Persistence and Partners

I just finished Big Magic over the weekend. Big Magic is Elizabeth Gilbert’s love letter to creativity. Or rather, her soul whispering (and sometimes shouting because the world can get noisy scaring our souls into hiding) to ours that the thing inside us – the thing that burns and tugs and bubbles just under the surface – is an okay thing, perhaps the best of things, and should be let out to play. Whether you want to write a book or weave a basket or collage or paint or invent or photograph the supermoon, we all have a creative being inside us that deserves our acknowledgement and attention. It doesn’t need to pay the bills or fold the laundry or earn its keep. It simply deserves the opportunity to exist. And through its existence, it will more than likely refresh you or change you or simply open up your perspective and empathy to the surrounding world.

The book arrived in my mailbox at the perfect time. I’m currently querying literary agents – a soul sucking process where you boil your creative work into a three paragraph letter that needs to encapsulate the story, its tone and demonstrate your abilities as a writer so hopefully this agent (or, more likely, their overworked assistant) will continue past your signature line in the email to read the first ten sample pages and will then request a partial or full manuscript and then (maybe, perhaps, fingers crossed) love it so much they offer representation so they can begin their own soul sucking cycle of trying to sell the same pages to a publisher. Fun, right? Needless to say, her section titled Persistence particularly resonated.

But as I go through this process of trying to secure third party credibility for my work, the Permission section also spoke to me.

I am currently being bothered by the next idea. Three unique souls, very different from the group in my existing manuscript, are pestering me, talking to me, pointing out things that are bothering them and asking me to help them out a bit. It’s reassuring that the well isn’t dry, but frustrating in that I’m not sure when to start allowing them completely in when my head is still so crowded with my current cast of characters (heaven forbid they start talking to each other). To top it off, we are starting a kitchen renovation in the next few weeks that only further sends that damsel doubt into a whirlwind of activity that typically starts with “Works in progress don’t buy subway tiles, honey. You spent how long writing that first book and not working a real job? What if it never sells? What makes you think it’s okay to just start another book that may only live on your laptop?”

Because it is.

Because it’s what I’m doing.

Because I don’t need anyone’s permission but my own.

What I’ve learned from the last year and a few months of writing this book is that I am a writer. That doesn’t mean I won’t ever hold down another day job. But it does mean that I won’t be able to stuff that part of myself back into Pandora’s box. The lid has been opened and the spirit it released in me is entirely too much fun to lock back up. Even if my words never see more print than what comes out of my very own printer. It won’t matter if it fails to publish, it doesn’t mean that I failed. Because I wrote it. I already did the thing I set out to do. Does that mean I won’t fight like hell to get it published? No. It just means that if my persistent efforts come up short, it isn’t a rejection of my permission slip to continue doing the thing.

Permission and Persistence. In this creative life they are the two things I can control.

As I read the book and sent out my queries and pondered my next steps, there was another theme that resonated with me this weekend that is not a part of Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, at least not in an outright way.

Partners. (Might as well keep it alliterative, right?)

I recently swallowed my nerves and asked a local writer I very much admire and had met several times before if she’d be willing to get together and share any advice on the business side of writing. It was terrifying to ask and just as terrifying when she said yes! We had a lovely dinner, however, talking about books and publishing and writers and MFA’s and Oprah’s book club and e-books and careers and permission and persistence (although not in those specific terms). I came home invigorated and inspired by our conversation.

The next day, I had lunch with a neighbor friend who, after decades of working with the same company, is now looking for a new job. We both find ourselves in places of reinvention, of soul searching and an attempt to take our life’s work and find the rare matching peg — me the right agent, her the right job.

I felt bolstered by these two women. In their own ways, they both provided support and encouragement of my journey. I hope, in some small way, I was able to do the same for them. These two conversations opened my eyes to the other partners I have on this creative walk. In just the last week, there was the friend who again offered her guest room to me for a visit and a bit of writer’s retreat; another who shared my excitement of the arrival of Big Magic and is my feminist soul sister (as well as birthday twin – coincidence?); another who asked for book recommendations on Facebook that turned into a quick, yet no less fascinating, exchange about books and their impacts; the fellow writer who is also shopping her book and our quick email exchanges sharing our frustrations with the process, rejections and words of support.

I told the universe (and anyone who would listen) that I was committed to living a creative life not in order to save the world, not as an act of protest, not to become famous, not to gain entrance into the canon, not to challenge the system, not to show the bastards, not to prove to my family that I was worthy, not as a form of deep therapeutic emotional catharsis…but simply because I liked it. — Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

I have been very vocal about my creative journey here on the blog, on my Facebook page, and recently in cocktail party conversation (New acquaintance: What do you do? Me: I’m a writer.). I don’t do this for attention or for ego stroking (although, who am I to turn down some ego stroking?). I do this because this is where I am. This is the messy, anxiety-prone, solitary task I am undertaking. I do this because we are all trying to live a creative life somehow. In our jobs, in our hobbies, in our craft projects with the kids, in those new coloring books for adults. We should talk about it more. We should be open to it. We should open ourselves up in a way that allows us to create and to create deeper relationships with each other.

Sure, I like that photo of your cat or your kid or that gastronomic feat you are about to ingest for dinner. But I am also excited by your new studio, your completed art project, your honest and thoughtful response to an event in your life or in the world. When I see these creative moments peek their heads up out of my friends’ and readers’ lives, I find that my soul has found another partner. And when you spend most of your day alone in your home, in front of a blank screen, with only a silent fish making bubble nests in the tank on your desk, it’s incredibly important when your soul recognizes another mate.

With a holy host of others standing around me… — James Taylor, Carolina In My Mind.

I couldn’t do it without you.

And so it is with Permission, Persistence and Partners that I am on this writing journey. Here’s hoping for more magic.