December 6th, Last year, my book was published. And that early morning, as I sat down at my desk, my husband asked, “What are you doing?”
“Going to writing practice.”
This had been my answer to his morning question every day for the previous few years – and had become an affectionate ritual for us.
“But you just published your book?” he said with perplexed eyes.
“It’s what I do; I write. I go to writing practice.”
It’s been almost a year since I didn’t have a BIG goal to light the way in writing practice. Some mornings my body wants an objective. My peers check in to the question “What are you working on today?” with things like:
“My manuscript”
“Chapter 7”
“An email to my client.”
“My dissertation”
“My prompt today is….”
. . .and there I am with my wandering writing. My answer is often, “I’m not sure; we’ll see where we end up.”
In a world that demands direction, I am wandering these days. I am unwinding my body and mind from the mandates of a specific way of being in life and (especially) business that no longer fits.
There are moments when the wandering delivers pure enchantment, and there are moments when panic sets in my body because I’m not forcing her in a goal-driven direction, even though I still have financial obligations to meet. I may be wandering, but I am in no way retired.
I have only an abrupt ending here because. . . I am wandering. The journey isn’t complete, so there is no summation or conclusion.
Here is a photo of me wandering Colorado in December 1995
