June 6, 2009
Today, I did something that’s become pretty rare for me: I had some down time. In other words, I spent the day without doing any writing. Sure, I had a fairly long writing to-do list; you could even say some of the items on that list were pressing. But I did none of them. Oh, I did some writing-related tasks. In particular, I organized and filed expense receipts, which had piled up over the past bunch of weeks, and I recorded the expenses in my tracking spreadsheet for tax purposes. Very important stuff, sure…but it wasn’t writing. And you know what? That was just fine for a change. I had a lot of other things to do with my wife, Wendy. Lots of errands to run and chores to finish. I mowed the lawn, for instance. Plus, I knew I needed some low-stress time to recover from a nagging, lingering sore throat. Not only that, but I knew in my gut that I just needed a little down time. Plain and simple. It happens. Once in a while, I have to rest the creative equipment and recharge the batteries in non-writing-related ways. It’s just the nature of the writer, and the nature of human beings. Which isn’t to say I don’t feel a little guilty about skipping the writing work for today. Sitting here now, I can feel it pulling me, saying “You should’ve done some writing today! How do you expect to make it if you don’t write to your full potential each and every doggone day?” But most of me is saying, “Hey, you’re all right, man. Good for you. This’ll help in the long run, trust me.” So that’s a positive thing. And tomorrow will be here before you know it, anyway. Always a new opportunity to move the enterprise forward. Always a new set of doors and windows to throw open. A new song to sing. See you soon.
