It’s one of those days when everything begins off right. Don’t you love those days? It really shouldn’t have been easy to get up because I was dealing with a sneezy nose all night. I had to get up and deal with it at one point. Then I tried to be really quiet so that I don’t wake up Mark who really does have to be up at five. Trying to keep a sneezy nose quiet is not a relaxing activity. I find my muscles all tensed up and have to work on relaxing them. I found my tea tree oil and dropped a bunch onto a hankie. I was too stuffed up to smell it and that stuff packs a punch. But I could feel the cool on the back of my throat and I knew that the power of the tea tree oil was at work. I soon fell asleep but had to roll over at some point because it didn’t feel good to lay like that all night and then my really sensitive nose started to act up again. I’m wide awake, trying to be really quiet while I throw one tissue after another over the edge of the bed. Finally I must have slept again because the alarm was going off. I have a back up alarm set for myself, you can do that on the i-phone, it’s great, in case I end up asleep again. I woke up with my backup alarm and was awake at just the break of dawn, which is when all the chickens like to be getting up. So everything began as it should. I took my allergy medicine and sat at my computer and saw my emails had an email from: Web Editor ICL - Rx list from the Institute for Children’s Literature. The place where I did my writing course years ago. I love their emails. I always read them and sometimes print them out so that I can read them some more. I didn’t get very far down the email when I noticed that a website they had been referring to recently was up and running.
I couldn’t help it and clicked. Then I started reading her blog. I read and read and read. It was amazing. Motivation, willpower, bad habits, reasons, excuses, goals, mini habits and so much more. It was wonderful to read about what other writers deal with and how they overcome. We all struggle with the same things. Somehow I ended up on a website applying for a writing job with a Christian booklet company. I read a story about a lady who is inspiring Christian writers and her story brought me emotional tears. That was some great writing. I finally clicked over to my program, Scrivener. Opened a blank page and started writing. It isn’t early morning hours. It is light out. I’ve eaten breakfast. Chloe is at her desk and I just heard the washer end. So stuff has been happening and I’m writing. I’m still inspired and my fingers are still writing what ever they want to write. What I think is wonderful about it is that they still know how to type clearly even with all this going on. It’s about training my mind and fingers to work together. It isn’t dark in the room anymore and my mind is working just fine. You can laugh here if you want to. I did. I was going to sit here and write about procrastination. We’ve all heard how bad that is and we all know that horrible feeling you get when you are doing it and you know you are doing it and you can’t stop doing it to start doing what you are supposed to be doing. But there may be a silver lining in the procrastination. It may be that one is expected to be doing something that one doesn’t really want to do and there may be a really good reason for it. Maybe I just need to look at myself and say, ‘Hey, why are you putting this or that off?’ Maybe there is a logically good reason. Maybe I can learn more about what is right for me. It’s a good thing to get rid of guilty feelings. Doing everything promptly and timely and perfectly all the time. Is that who I am? Is that even who I want to be? Sounds like grounds for super self-righteousness. It’s not me. I’m glad it’s not me. I learned so much this morning while procrastinating. I’m so glad I did it. I even applied for a possible writing job, although I’m hardly spiritual enough to write for a Christian magazine or Christian children’s publications, but you just never know. They may have an assignment that works for me. So about procrastination. I’m not going to fight it any more. I’m not going to feel bad about it. I’m going to go with it. There just may be a beautiful reason why I procrastinated. There may be something God wanted me to see or know and I can be peaceful about knowing that I followed the lead.
I am learning something else new. I am discovering that once you open the doors of your passion, in this case writing, you will always find a way. You won’t be able to stop. You will be able to write in the early morning hours, in the mid morning with school girl questions and readings from her of her writings. In the middle of the day, quickly on the i-phone or Kindle, in the car even with those inefficient tools, (not if you drive, don’t write on your i-phone or kindle while you are driving, I don’t drive), in the boat, even in the evenings with paper and pencil. You will be driven to write once you have begun. You can even take short breaks and get back to it. I’ve been taking weekends off, but I couldn’t stand to take more time away than that. I wouldn’t want to go back to not being in the habit of writing.
P.S. I can’t seem to write through a hot flash. My fingers can’t remember where the keys are and the words get all jumbled up.
Elizabeth Williams - daily writing exercise, 1,050 words.
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