How’s your week so far? How are you feeling?
I’m curious. Since Monday…
- Have you spent a moment drenched in wonder?
- Have you surrended your time to a story, a song or a true feeling, and if yes, did you allow it to press beautifully, deeply into the heart of you?
- Did you nourish your creativity with silken conversation, an unapologetic ribbon of solitude, a few kick-butt writing sessions or a few solid workouts at the gym?
The writerly heart needs rich input.
Use these words as a guide: Wonder. Responsiveness. Nourishment. Creativity. Effort.
(In fact, as I write these words, I think they make an awfully fine formula for a damn-good week.)
It’s November, and no doubt you’ve seen the tinsel in the aisles and the Christmas trees already sparkling in the store windows. Does the juggernaut of premature, commercial Christmastide annoy you as much as it does me?
You’re about to be tested, dear writer.
You can surrender your writerly needs and practice to “the holidays” if you choose.
Or, you can set up a few marks of your own to hit.
You can choose to be present for the season and keep connected to you and your writing during the holidays.
How?
Take some time to write. Without apology. Don’t feel like you have to attend every party or event you’re invited to. Work out and meditate every day, to keep yourself steady and wise. Set aside 10 minutes every few days to drop everything and spend time simply listening to a piece of music or looking at a few pieces of good, inspiring art. Make a plan to see your smartest friends. (And don’t let anything break the plans you make.)
You don’t have to surrender your creative practice, your workouts, your writing project or your writerly sensitivities to everyone else’s holiday agenda…unless you choose to.
It’s up to you.
You can claim time to yourself and write.
You can honor your need for rich writerly sustanence — art, conversation, holiday fun, solitude, endorphins…
You can consciously choose to keep your writer’s heart wide-awake and enlivened, so you’ll be primed to surrender to occasional, tiny moments of startle or wonder.
Get started by staring at the sky on a deep, clear night.
Walk in the cold.
Watch a sleeping creature.
Commit now to making each and every week of the holiday season a damn-good week, a week filled with a writer’s kind of fun — wonder, open-heartedness, self-nourishment, creativity and good solid effort.
Enjoy the adventure! And let me know if I can be of help.
much love from your coach,
