July has been writer's block month for me. I haven't been so much sitting and staring at a blank page in my notebook as I've been just sitting and staring into space. At least that's all I've wanted to do over the past month. When you have two active girls at home plus two grandmothers around to entertain them, you end up with too much female maternal energy flowing around to sit and stare at anything for very long.
Yet since my grandfather died a month ago, I haven't wanted to do much of anything. I've kept busy, of course. Encouraging my two year old to go in the potty, taking my seven year old back and forth to day camp, keeping the laundry monster from taking over. I'm not sure that kind of busy is the cure for writer's block or for grief.
What I need is a creative project that does not involve writing or editing or any kind of language at all. Maybe I need to play the guitar, sketch, sing, ice skate, do some yoga, dance. And there's always good old-fashioned hard work. It's free and always available. Perhaps channeling my creative energies into work would serve the dual purpose getting into a different headspace and being productive at the same time. Instead of thinking of my job as non-creative busy work, I could turn it into some kind of mindfulness exercise. Zen and the Art of Homemaking. It can't hurt to try.
Copyright © 2005 by Allyson Denise Walker-Lawrence. All rights reserved. No part of this piece may be reproduced in any form, written or electronic, without the permission of the author.
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