I just read an essay on NWP with the title of this post. It drew me because I feel a little asleep, but not sleepy. The author (Grosskopf) writes of how writing daily made him live his life differently: more aware and more alive. I know daily writing can do this, yet somehow I let days slip by without writing. That isn't altogether true either. I write, a lot, everyday: emails and grocery lists, syllabi and assignment prompts. But that kind of writing doesn't do what the writer of the article explained that regular reflective writing does: help us live life well. Not as somnambulists. So, when I read the essay, I thought: I need to get back in the habit. I need to carve out the time again. I wrote daily during Summer Institute--and it did, indeed, make me more aware of life and the moments that matter. This photo is one I took during our walk-and-write--when we stopped in Tangie's for a place to write with some atmosphere. Did the sweet roll taste better because I wrote about it? I don't know, but I know writing about it made me pay attention. And that is what I know daily informal writing can do: make me pay attention to life. So, here I am, back to my goal of writing daily and hoping that, like the author, I will, through daily writing, find "the bounty of inventiveness, and a heightened sense of possibility in my every day." And maybe another sweet roll, too.
My arteries just groaned as I looked at the sweetroll again :) oooh, it was good!!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. I write everyday too: the emails, notes, articles, facebook posts, grocery lists, etc. I write so much my laptop burns a hole in my left pant leg as it rests on my lap. But when do I have the time to write for me? When? Between fixing meals and laundry? Between taking my kids to the park and walking the dog? Between cleaning up the dog poo and working out? Between writing for the Herald and writing lesson plans? Who knows. Life is packed and I suppose I could get one less hour of sleep to accomplish this goal.
ReplyDeleteOr stop doing dishes.
It's paper plates from here on out.
I like this. In one of my favorite movies, Joe vs. the Volcano a character says "My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement." I think it's true that it's easy to fall into a sleep of complacency in life. Interestingly, the scriptures also call for us to "awake from a deep sleep." Perhaps I've been in this sleep myself. I used to write in my personal journal daily, but I've gotten so bad the last few years that when I went to look for my journal recently, I discovered that I've lost it!
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