DOWN TIME IS UP

How is it possible that it is now mid-May and my last post was in March? I think the answer is pretty simple: I was kidnapped by Zombie aliens who confiscated my computer and forced me to watch episodes of Nanny 9-11 until my eyes bled.

Either that, or I've had the blog-blahs. Symptoms of BLOG-BLAHS are easy to spot, by the way. Aching brain, calloused fingers, numerous deadlines safety-pinned to a shirt as constant reminder to HURRY UP AND DO all the things that need to be DONE!

The good news of being a writer is often the bad news: Open ended days filled with too many distractions and free wi-fi. The lack of structure is really no excuse NOT to blog (or to get any of my work done) and the thought does occur to me that building a "Blogging hour" into my day would actually resemble (gasp) STRUCTURE. Still, I go through periods when there's just too many hours in a day - and work that needs attention...and rather than my being able to attack that huge pile I get overwhelmed by it all and end up watching TV and wondering when the elves will appear to do the work for me.

But I forget that sometimes this "down time" (which can often stretch on and on) is actually okay. It's okay to let ideas live their own lives while I go for a metaphorical long walk (or an actual one!). Sitting idle is part of the life I've created. And when I raise my head above the water - I am able to see that the couch need not be a feared thing - but a necessary comfort. Idle hands is the devil's work - but an idle mind is often a writer's creative down-time when ideas simmer and gestate and often emmerge, if not fully-formed, but fattened-up and full of energy.

But I am looking on the positive side. I'm writing this post, and I'm not even doing it while on the couch, which means my brain is ready to rock and the creative vacation it took (while I was lost in the woods of worry) is now over. It's time to work again. To write again. To express myself and be part of the world again.

What I love about the writer's life is that it's a beautiful Friday morning and I am sitting in a wonderful Montreal cafe doing my "job". Letter by letter. Word by word. Off the couch and ready to embrace the world I've made!