SOL18: Singing the Mid-month Blues
Posted on March 16th, 2018
I’m sitting at my laptop listening to violin music through earbuds while Ken is watching a movie nearby. I’ve been waiting all day for my muse to stop by and whisper a topic for today’s post in my ear while I’ve been cleaning, organizing my craft room, and baking bread (yes, I really do bake bread once a week). Sad to say, he’s been a no-show today.
Or did I mistake him for a dust bunny as I vacuumed under the desk?
I have consulted my writing journal, searching for a sentence or even just a word that will call out to me, “Here I am. I’ve been waiting to be taken up and written down.”
I walked down to the mailbox thinking maybe fresh air would do the trick. Maybe the topic would be there, a letter to myself. Alas, only bills and catalogs rested there.
Where is my writerly self-esteem that I so confidently taught my students to nurture? At this point, I’m wondering why I thought I had 31 things to say to the world about my life.
Could I be a 15-slice girl?
Or maybe I’m just really tired.
I remember Eve Merriam’s poem and hope flickers…
Morning is
a new sheet of paper
for you to write on.
Whatever you want to say,
all day, until night
folds it up
and files it away.
The bright words and the dark words
are gone
until dawn
and a new day
to write on.
Sweet! I especially love “Could I be a 15-slice girl?” I don’t know why, but it is the perfect response to your statement above about questioning why you ever thought you had 31 things to share. I am also experiencing that niggling guilt about the disconnect between what I’ve harped on with my students and my own struggle to find a topic every day. Some days nothing seems worth my energy. Thanks for this, words in flight.
I love that your muse is a ‘he’ and that he sometimes whispers in your ear. I think you did just what we tell our kids to do, keep the ‘pen’ moving. Sometimes our thinking about what we are going to write about IS our slice for the day. No writer has the words flowing all of the time. My next post didn’t have any conversations with dust bunnies, but a similar vein, none the less.
I think it hits us all st least once during March. Ironically, our nothing to write posts often turn into something good that get us going again or at least the comments inspire us to keep writing.
I can empathize! My day is coming, but I’m thankful, it’s not here yet. Here are some links where I plan to pull some inspiration from our Slicing Community.
https://romeolitcoach.wordpress.com/2018/03/15/solsc18-march-15th-2018/comment-page-1/#comment-675
https://raisealithuman.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/my-title-writing-weaknesses/
https://reflectwriteshare.com/2018/03/11/six-word-story-sunday/comment-page-1/#comment-500
https://teachingfromtheleft.blogspot.com/2018/03/311-sol18.html
Happy slicing for a strong finish!
Today I felt less than inspired for most of the day myself. But I like what you wrote with your lack of inspiration a lot better than what I ultimately came up with!