Oh, hi friends!
This year I’ve experienced hardcore Sunday scaries. (Ironic since I don’t technically have a ‘day job’ to reenter on Mondays, but ’tis yet another mystery of our brains.)
The only things worse than Sunday scaries is when they arrive after a long holiday weekend. You’ve had many days off, eaten more pie than the rest of the year combined, and might have been thinking, “But what, exactly, am I returning to?”
This.
Today.
You’re here.
That’s not so bad, is it?
You’re going to be more than fine.
Do one small thing, then another. Take a break. Drink a seltzer. Text your friend a fun article. Go outside. Breathe. Nothing is as scary as it seems.
“I often get asked about the perfect place to write or the ideal retreat to shut out the world and create art? And yes, some times as artists we have to shut out the noise and chaos to work. But the other 90% of the time, we are solar panels, windmills, dams. We use the environment around us as an endless source. And this renewable energy is not only in stories but the circumstances in which we create.
I wrote 2/3rds of a play on a subway. Rather than putting in my airpods and zoning out, I realized that my little 10 min rides to Union Square were writing intervals. Standing up, sitting down, noisy, ppl begging for food, 'SHOWTIME SHOWTIME.' After a week of making this one single change, I had about 50 extra pages. 50 pages of writing time that was just sitting there in my day while traveling.
The perfect spot to create is the one you're in right now. The 'perfect retreat' is the 10 minutes or even 1 minute tucked away between chores. The perfect artist life is the one you're experiencing right now with office bullies, school tyrants, boredom, ennui, crying babies. You're not a wall, you're a windmill. Turn your daily storms into light.”
I’ve loved reading Aurin Squire’s insightful blog Six Perfections for years and years. He’s a reporter, playwright, TV writer, and producer, and I always walk away from his writing feeling a little more clear about my own head and heart.
You’re not a wall, you’re a windmill. Turn your daily storms into light.
This year, I’m grateful I finally decided to…
I was so inspired hearing about everyone’s big changes this year (here and here) and it made me think about what can still be squeezed from the rest of the year. Squeezed is the wrong word. Massaged? Uh, no. Extracted?? Anyway.
If you weren’t sure how you would answer the question, there’s still time.
How do you want to answer the question? Start there and work backwards.