Like that of most of my friends, my once-robust blogging life has dropped off. This is largely due to Facebook, where I am daily due to work responsibilities.
But, when I do try to write nowadays, I find that I have lost it ("IT," whatever that is.) I don't seem to have the ability I once did to put together thoughts into a coherent piece of writing longer than what Facebook updates require.
This is a problem. Part of my job is producing a magazine, and I need to do much of the writing on that, and we need to get an issue out in the Spring. I go back and try to edit things that I wrote or started earlier, and actually marvel that I was able to do work like that...where did it go? When I took this job, I was so excited, because one of the things I am is: I am a writer. hat's been part of my identity for as long as I can remember. Where did it go?
I think it might have gone to the same place as the knitting. I took knitting on the RevGals BE 4.0 and so I have the front panel of a sweater finished...but I never got back to it after the trip. And when I thought of taking it to our many doctor appointments or treatments, it just didn't make sense.
I've tried, lately. I have...let's see...five posts in draft form that I have worked on. Some of these have to do with information I want to share, eventually, with other folks who have head & neck cancer, or who care for someone who does. Things I have learned, that I would rather not have learned the hard way or had to figure out piecemeal from the internet. If what we've been through can help someone, then that's definitely a positive. But somehow, I can't get them done. Writing them feels like running through glue.
So I'm going back to the old Artist's Way theory that writing daily makes one a writer. Sharpens the saw, as the Covey folks would say. We'll see how I do on the 750 Words thing.
And I fell in love with the colors and pattern of an afghan kit I saw recently:
Craftsman Afghan, Ocean colorway. From KnitPicks.com
and I splurged on it. I realize that this does NOT get that sweater any closer to being finished, but starting fresh with "something completely different" makes it seem possible.
I'mthinking that all my creative energy has been used up in cheerleading and caretaking. Did you know that it's hard to let go of caretaking, by the way, when you've devoted yourself to it for an extended period of time? (You mamas out there had no idea, right?)
We'll see.
