My recent blog posts have drawn from my single mother self and my therapist self, but less on my creative writer self. Maybe that's an instance of blog imitating life. Because, let's face it, kids need a lot from us, and newly-launched therapy practices need a lot in the way of time, thought, and energy, too. But if I ignore my creative work/play for too long, I suffer. My relationships suffer. And certainly my writing itself suffers. Simply put, my writing, too, needs me to show up for it.
This month, I renewed my commitment to my creative life by taking part in a 28 poems in 28 days writing challenge, and by revising and submitting an essay about my daughter's emergency c-section birth. There have been, of course, risks inherent in these steps. I have written and exposed some bad poems (along with some halfway decent ones!). I have let others hold me accountable for whether I write something daily regardless of how I feel on any given day (the kind of commitment that seems almost absurdly easy when you make it, but on some days feels near impossible to meet). And I have shared an essay about a pretty personal experience with a team of editors who may or may not get it, like it, or want to publish it. This is the kind of daily practice, the putting yourself out on a limb, that makes up the artist's life. Which, as much as motherhood and practicing therapy, is what I want.
Wanting is often a whole lot easier than the doing, though. That's why concrete goals and action steps are important. As is encouraging one another along the way.
If you are doing something now, or resolving to do something soon, to make space for your artist self and give it a chance to shine, I would love to hear about it. There's plenty of room out here on the limb, and even in this wintertime, the view can be pretty terrific.
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