Grasshopper Thoughts, Vol. V, October 2011

I've mentored many a writer in my adult life, taught many adult education classes on creative writing, and lent a helping hand to countless new bloggers.  At some point, the question always arises of, "What do you do when you get writer's block?"

That's the age old nemesis, isn't it?  Writer's block, artist's block, musician's block....it isn't career specific to just writers.  We all hit moments where inspiration just refuses to flow.  It has been 29 days since I last posted here at Healing Morning and this is outside the norm for me.  While I am not of the blogging daily approach, I do tend to write at least once or twice a week.  I won't go into the reasons for my recent dry spell, but I will share that the answer I almost always offer to the question above is, "Just write.  Don't focus on whether it's good or bad...just sit down and start writing. The very act of being in writing 'motion' will often wake up your writing Muse."

Another favorite tool of mine is to Grasshopper.  If you follow me here at Healing Morning blog, then you're familiar with this concept.  Grasshopper Thoughts is a process of just allowing your mind to flit....or hop (like a grasshopper) in myriad directions with no logical focus.  I find it to be therapeutic to do this.  It can be as entertaining to write this way as it can be for people to read it, and it allows a glimpse into that writer's soul in a curious manner.  Little tidbits, little gems, little windows into who they are.

So, in the time honored tradition, I now commence Grasshoppering to encourage my own Muse to release her death grip on my normally prolific writing.

• I'm a fan of the good, old fashioned Emery board to file my nails.  Yes, I know that all manner of new inventions exist for this, including metal nail files that are touted to be better for your nails.  They don't work for me.  Metal nail files take forever for me because I'm fortunate to have nice, healthy, strong nails.  Nope, give me a traditional coarse grit Emery board and I'm happy.  Besides, those metal nail files make my teeth hurt with the sound they make on my nails.
• Some genius person took the Cool Whip concept and morphed it into chocolate Cool Whip - bless their hearts!  I'm not a big sweets eater and can go long stretches without eating ice cream, sometimes longer than a year.  It's just not a temptation to me.  Once in a blue moon, however, chocolate Cool Whip, still frozen is ideal.
• I opened an old book the other day, and from its pages fell a perfectly pressed sprig of Lily of the Valley.  I lifted it to my nose and it still carries that beautiful fragrance.  I think I pressed that flower there when I was wee, and it remains to this day my favorite old fashioned flower.  It was a delicate, floral time capsule moment to my adult self from my very young self and I was assailed with lovely memories.
• The last time I bought Crayons, they smelled different and I was devastated.  How could Crayola do this?!  Whose idea was it to tweak the formula?  No doubt it was done to save money, as that drives any corporation's bottom line, but it made me sad.  The aroma of Crayons is iconic, or it used to be.  It's still close to the original smell, but different.  These are the moments when I stubbornly dig my heels in against change.
• I was driving my Mom somewhere recently, just out running errands, and I said something to make her laugh unexpectedly.  We glanced at one another and smiled, that silent "I love you for who you are and how I feel when we're together" communication.  I'm blessed.
• Someday, someone is going to invent a way to prove that creative people are NOT airheads, dingbats or incapable of remembering things. We just think and process things differently, but we manage to get everything accomplished.  I'm serious - someday, someone will invent a way to quantify this fact. And THEN you'll all be sorry! ;-)  Just sayin.  *And if this way has already been invented, then I'm the first to cheerfully declare that I TOLD you so!  :)

I think that's plenty to get the writerly thoughts warmed up.  With luck, it won't be another 29 days before my next post.  For now, Grasshoppering has done the trick to shift the logjam loose a trifle.

It isn't Writer's Block

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been on a break of sorts from blogging recently.  Nothing has been wrong to cause this.  Life, as it often does, has gotten in the way to a certain extent.  Beyond that, however, I've had an extended 'moment' of...something.  I have said it before and it bears repeating that I am not a daily blogger.  I write when inspiration strikes and enjoy that particular personal rhythm, as it works for me in my own peculiar manner.  When inspiration doesn't strike, I simply don't write.  Again, it works for me.  It is, however, a bit unusual for inspiration to be on such an extended vacation.  What I have discovered, over the years, is that this isn't Writer's Block, per se.  For me, it is a pause of sorts...a pause, a breath held for long moments, waiting for magic to enter.  And it always does.

Most writers would label this the creeping monster of doubt known as the aforementioned and dreaded Writer's Block.  I don't identify it as that, but I will admit to being quite aware of a different pace of sorts causing a hitch in my normal writing rhythm.  I also admit that as time stretched on with no familiar burning need to write thoughts out in blog article format, I did begin to question what was taking place.  Being the researching, analyzing personality that I am, I studied this experience from all angles.  Poked at it.  Nudged it sideways.  Shifted it a fraction of an inch that way, then back again.  Walked away from it for days only to return and regard it through occasionally narrowed, contemplative eyes.

Finally, this morning, I had had enough.  Time to joust with this unruly, temperamental, irregular jog to my writing stride.  "Don't worry so much, just sit down and write," I have often suggested to writing students that I have coached.  I know this to be a valuable bit of advice, as it can be helpful to knock loose the logjam of thoughts in every writer's mind.  Once you begin writing, it can magically open up the floodgates and inspiration once more comes rushing forward.  So, adopting a 'physician, heal thyself' philosophy, I began musing with much more intent than I have implemented in the past month.  And suddenly, before even setting fingertips to keyboard to begin the writing process, the thought occurred.

Perhaps we have all inaccurately tossed the cold, sterile phrase of Writer's Block around as a throwaway concept.  Perhaps it isn't a block at all.  I have written in a past blog about the concept of useful limbo, as I experienced that very thing in the recent past.  I believe there are definitely moments in our lives where God/Universe intentionally isolates us in order to forcefully focus our minds in a direction we would otherwise never have time to notice and open up to.  This, I boldly suggest, is that ephemeral moment, that opening up to allow magic to flow and embrace the writer's mind.

I have been experiencing what I would now identify as a mini-useful-limbo stage.  It definitely has not been a block of any kind in regard to writing, as my mind and imagination have been as fertile and active as they always are.  Indeed, there are stacks and lists and jotted notes in abundance waiting to be completed and given voice in blog format.  They just aren't ready yet.  My mind, my Spirit has been attending to another task.  And in the process, I have stumbled across the novel concept - to me, at least - that there truly is no such thing as 'writer's block' in the concrete sense of the description.  How liberating for writers the world over to revise their definition of this moment when their pens refuse to write, when the thoughts refuse to flow, when inspiration is elusive....it is not a block, it is a sabbatical! 

By definition, as is my wont and love of words:

Webster's Dictionary describes the word 'sabbatical' as 1) an adjective, meaning of or relating to a sabbatical year; or as 2) a noun, meaning a leave or break or change from a normal routine or employment; or again as 3) a noun, meaning a year of rest for the land observed every seventh year in ancient Judea.  (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)

I think we are all aware that life is a series of neverending cycles, of beginnings, middle stages and endings.  Curiously, I have noted over the years that my own life tends to run on periods of 5 - 7 year cycles.  I recognized a little over two years ago that I was in the midst of a new cycle and with that huge chunk of grander change, I am also aware that there are mini-cycles taking place.  This most recent one has been that sabbatical of sorts where, I am now aware, my psyche has been doing some necessary shifting.  Adjusting, realigning, perhaps disposing of certain patterns that no longer serve me well, and embracing new patterns that have fresh, strong purpose.  This is an inward journey for some, and others choose to physically travel the world and discover themselves outwardly.

All of this is time consuming, but while I am in the midst of the process, time seems to slow down and stretch, as though I am in a slight time warp.  Where normally I might be jittery and a bit impatient, not wanting to lose momentum with my blog following, the stronger pull has been to honor this mini-sabbatical.  In the back of my mind, something is resonating softly but with bright purpose and I know it requires clear energy and full attention to bring it together into a cohesive melding.  Do I know what all this means?  No, I really don't.  That may sound a bit off kilter, as I have dedicated a full blog post to talking about what I am experiencing. 

I guess I could've whittled this down to a few simple paragraphs that said I have recently taken a mini-sabbatical from blog posts.  It would be true, but it wouldn't have allowed me to go on this winding trail of self-discovery.  It also wouldn't have allowed me to write this stream of consciousness that I often find turns out some true gems.  And to be a bit self-deprecating, I admit it wouldn't have been half as much fun, half as enjoyable as sharing my thoughts in this manner, here, with you.  I like to think that many of my friends and readers enjoy going on these jaunts with me in written format, meandering the long way around and about the proverbial Back 40 before reaching the destination.  Some days that destination is clear and I know where we'll end up, but more often the journey brings me to a different 'home' each time. 

As I'm writing this, part of my mind is noticing that this post bears quite strong resemblance to a couple of past posts.  My writer's preference is to never repeat myself - it's just a personal peeve, but this time I'm going to go ahead and give this one voice.  I am posting it because I recognize that sometimes repetition occurs in our lives for the very simple purpose of imprinting a lesson.  Commonly held belief is that doing something 21 times creates a pattern of habit in our brains.  I cannot argue with the thought that a bit of repetition on a common theme in blog posts might help not only me, but maybe click for other people who read this post and compare it to past blog posts that have been steps in this mental reflection of mine.  So, I will write this one and post it and see where it resonates, and what results occur.

This time it has brought me to the realization that for me, at least, right this moment in this past month of curious inactivity from a writing standpoint, it hasn't been writer's block.  It has been a spiritual sabbatical that has allowed my Soul to do some honing and refining.  Where I will admit that I was beginning to question the possibility of some true manifestation of blocking, instead I sit here, writing and smiling as I embrace a much friendlier, useful description.  Not writer's block.  Instead, a pause for magic!  Maybe a lull...but better adapted as a sabbatical.  I like it, and I think it will become a new phrase in my personal library.