Writing, My Love

Writing is my love. If you love something, you find a lot of time. I write for two hours a day, usually starting at midnight; at times, I start at 11.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Writing is my love, 2 hours a day has never been enough. It easily consumes my life more than riches (not more than my family though). The hours I write daily, may dwindle over the years but for now, writing is my world. My world is writing. I guess I’m catching up for all the years I should have been writing. Funny thing is that I was waiting until I was in a better place but I didn’t find that better place until I started writing.

First do what you feel called to do, then let the better place come to you.

Here’s a great lesson from Steven Furtick. Enjoy.

O William Blake

Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.

William Blake

O William Blake, if you only knew how much I’d love for my life to be as smooth as this quote sounds. Ok ok wait let’s think about this. Something I learned as a writer was that we all have different times when our brains work best. Some brains work best first thing in the morning, some late at night. So this nice tidy order looks great in theory but truth is these aren’t one size fits all. Learning when your brain works best can help you decide your daily schedule. My best writing hour was 11am, so I’d plan my day to allow me to have my butt in the chair by then. Writing before bed is just part of my life but it doesn’t feel the same as writing at night.

This quote also seems to advocate for routine. I like routine. I think it’s important to create routine but I also think it’s important to allow flexibility into my life. There’s something creative about switching things up intuitively.

When’s your best time to write? Can you relate to this quote from a different perspective?

Solitude

Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other.

Rainer Maria Rilke

I don’t know that I could find a quote that better explains my marriage. We are a pair humans who absolutely love our solitude. We really don’t require much as lovers of solitude but we do have our own desires. I don’t think I ever realized how much better my life is when I have solitude. And I don’t think I could understand my husband’s need for solitude until I understood my own need. We will reach our 10 year marriage in Sept and all I can say is that the first ten years has mostly been us learning to trust ourselves and learning to create and support healthy environments throughout our entire lives, not just at home. That’s just a brief reaction to this quote. I think a lot more could be said here so maybe I’ll return to it in the future.

Believe

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

Theodore Roosevelt

Believe in the person you are and will be. I had a hard time believing in myself for a long time. I’m still learning to believe in who I am and what I’m capable of being. I think that’s something we should always be learning and challenging. It took years of unearning all the lies I was told about myself. Today, I trust myself. I trust my body. I trust my intuition. I believe in the functions and systems that are part of me and the only reason I do is because I took time to listen and learn. And I keep learning and listening. I believe very much in myself so let’s see where that takes me.

Fell?

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Confucius

I’m here with this quote and a story. One time in about 3rd grade, I was riding bikes with my brother, hit a pothole, flipped over the handlebars. I scraped my forehead, got the wind knocked out of me, and ripped my t-shirt. It was no fun. Cried the whole way home. No broken bones. No er visit. For weeks I refused to ride my bike down that hill. Took me some time to go down that hill again but eventually I got my courage back.

The only other time I got the wind knocked out of me was when I was on the monkey bars. I landed just right on my back. That didn’t keep me from climbing the monkey bars a few minutes later.

The point here is to share a relatable story because we all fall down sometimes. Some accidents don’t cause much of a negative impact. Others require more intentional focus and rebuilding.

How about you?

Strawberry Raincoat

and yard work in the rain

In the beginning of the week, I asked my little one to pick up sticks with me over the weekend. When the weekend finally arrived, I told her it was raining. Before I could get to the bad news, that we would have to reschedule our yard work day, her eyes light up and she says with excitement, “I can wear my new strawberry raincoat! I can go get my boots and my coat on!” I smiled and of course said yes! because this exciting adventure is free and right outside my front door. She left and returned fully dressed with her raincoat and boots on before I even finished my morning coffee, and like we planned, we got the wheelbarrow and picked up sticks together around the yard.

We finished the job and now we’re ready for our next project when the sun comes out again. Plus, I got some great bonding time with my little one. Imagine all that success while we were outside in the rain.

There’s a few things here: Let the things that excite you, be your reason to keep your commitments. So what if things happen that are outside of your control. Don’t let that keep you from you own success.

If you’re around the right people, your joy/excitement will bring others joy.

Kids really are great mentors.

It’s much easier to face adversity when you have someone by your side that’s excited to do the work!

And Together

We can’t all be good at everything. This is partly the logic behind having a team in the first place, so each role can be filled with the person best suited for that role and together, every job and every strength is covered.

Simon Sinek

Tonight I want to share my instagram post here.

Being on an amazing team in the workforce is new to me. I’ve literally never had a better job than this.

Make a Life

Don’t let making a living prevent you from making a life.

John Wooden

I have always loved the quote. I never knew who said it until today. John Wooden was a basketball coach who went to several championships. I don’t think he has all the answers but I do think he has great insight on working in a way that creates success. Imagine winning 7 championships in a row!

I have always focused on doing work I’m passionate about. And the quality of my life has always been something I valued. When I get into places where I no longer prioritize those two things (or for some reason I no longer have access to the two things), I feel disconnected, burned out, depressed, some call it “out of alignment.” Making a living for me goes hand in hand with making a life for myself.

I wonder how people think about this quote when making a living isn’t part of making a life?

But You

You’re imperfect, and you’re wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.
Brene Brown

There’s going to be days when you screw up. I don’t like those days, most of us don’t. On those days I want to crawl into a hole and hide until it all blows over.

Believe it or not, I used to shame myself with my own weird self-punishing rituals like not allowing myself my favorite foods, or not allowing myself the tiny joys that I would allow myself to have on good days. But over the last 10 years, I’ve learned to accept myself with all the silly little flaws I come with. Now bad days are the days I treat myself especially if my mistake is really bringing me down.

In order for me to have gotten to that point, I had to realize that sometimes my mistakes feel like giants, when in reality they aren’t as big and bad as I’m making them out to be. Also the toxic environments I allowed myself to stay in, swelled my silly little mistakes to be bigger than they were. These moments can feel very big, but misunderstandings are part of language and communication. So is forgetting. So is accidentally crossing a boundary that’s new to you. Whatever it is, it’s part of learning those around us and learning ourselves. It’s all about what you’re doing to learn from it.

So since learning all this, I do my best to add to environments in positive ways. It took me a long time to unlearn self-punishing. I don’t want to add to anyone else’s overbearing inner disciplinarian. If they have one, great, they don’t need me to punish them.

We are all still worthy of love and acceptance with all our struggles and flaws.