Writing and I have a great relationship. We spend lots of time together. Usually our time together is playful.
Sometimes I am flirtatious with writing, starting a bunch of blog posts or essays or poems and never quite bringing them to an end.
Sometimes I begrudgingly come to the page, thinking if I don’t show up, Writing might with hold her magic.
Rarely I stop writing for a couple days. When this happens, nothing else works as well. I start feeling a weighty feeling in my chest. I can’t speak clearly, it seems. It takes a while for anyone else to notice. Usually this pause from writing is simply because I am busy with my children or my work or I am traveling and wearing my “I take care of everyone and everything!” hat.
Admittedly, I frequently write in my head on those days, but almost any sort of tangible word collection – be it in a tiny notebook or into the notemaker on my cell phone – is better than a day without writing.
It is like Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love wrote: “I write regularly, but in bursts, if that makes sense. I’ve never been burned by writer’s block, either. Writing is my love and my life, but it’s also a job.”
I also think of poet Mary Oliver who reminds me, “My work is loving the world,” which I translate like this: “My writing is loving the world.”
I write because my words may be of service. I write because I must. I write because I am a better human being when words splash on the page.
You may be in a couple spaces: you don’t have enough time to write. You may be in a space where your writing lives within the “I gotta do it, I gotta do it, I must publish this blog post, but wait, there is laundry and my child’s soccer practice and…. Oh, here’s a writing assignment that will pay me $25! Throw all my personal goals to the side to make $25 so I can call myself a pro!”
I know these well because I have lived each and all of them.
When I do the best and my writing is the best is when I think of it as my “work” not another crummy gig just above whatever is my version of the lowest of low. Each job is honorable. I am blessed because my work, my writing, is loving the world.
What is your work?
How do you show love to the world through your work?
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© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & this Summer will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.
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