Hello readers!
MIA writer is no longer MIA!!!
We’ll see how long that lasts. I’m so very good at keeping up with this blogging thing. In my defense…it’s hard to blog in the middle of political turmoil and a pandemic. It’s hard not to get all up in my feelings and remain objective when I have such strong feelings about all of it. But I want to refrain from ever being political in my blog posts. This is not the place for politics and to be quite honest, I know nowhere near enough about politics to stand solidly on my feet and debate someone who’s opinions differ from my own. Nor would I want to. Everyone is entitled to their political views. That’s the beauty of America – we’re free to have our opinions.
It’s also hard to write when you’re just trying to navigate your way through the pandemic. The back and forth from in-person learning to distance learning and back again between my school and my kids’ school has given me a considerable amount of mental whiplash. I am currently teaching from home which has been nice. I’m able to drink my own coffee, eat lunch and watch tv that I want to watch, not have to make small talk, and then I have a half an hour before my kids get home on the bus to clean, work out, or just walk around the house enjoying the rarity of silence.
But as I was enjoying said silence, it occurred to me that I’ve fallen far off track from where I want to be. My writing has suffered, my goals have suffered.
In short, every day has become a day to just get through and survive with minimal effort.
I’m sure a lot of people are feeling like this right now. So many of us are just trying to find our footing in a constantly shifting and uncertain world.
One way to do that…get organized. Go big…go small…but get organized. Even if you’re doing it from a distance. If your home office is your new normal, if zoom meetings are your new conference room…organize.
I started by getting into bullet journaling again. I have a schedule that’s all pre-planned but there’s something about it that doesn’t hold my attention. It’s not aesthetically pleasing. It lacks everything I love to see in my planner which is my work, my art, myself splashed across the pages. The physical proof of my motivation.
Organization brings you order. It makes things nice and clean and aesthetically pleasing to look at, sure. But it brings you order. And with all the chaos we’re all facing now…I think that order is pretty important. Even if it comes from something little like checking off a box for a small project finished.
Distance from people, from our lives, from order and knowing what to expect has made life hard even in its easiest moments.
I tell myself all the time that this is not our new normal. It might seem like it sometimes but it’s not. The human race is too stubborn to let this remain our normal. It will pass. There will be an end to distance learning.
Though how many parents out there are kind of bummed that snow days will no longer be a thing?!? I’m kind of sad that my kids will no longer be able to experience that sheer joy of an unexpected day free of school responsibilities provided by Mother Nature herself. Snow days are now distance learning days, at least for us.
Part of my organization, besides the bullet journal thing, exists in getting into a blog schedule again. Sticking to every Thursday, I’ll be posting blogs that mostly pertain to writing for the most part. More to come on that.
I’ll also be posting once-a-month excerpts on what I’m working on for public critique. I encourage you guys to feel free to respond. Be brutal. I promise I can take it. I’m almost…ugh…forty. I’ve been writing fanfiction since I was sixteen and have suffered many a brutal blow by way of reviews to my work sometimes being thrown out there just for the sake of being vicious. It’s made for some tough skin.
So, until next time…
Breathe, organize, enjoy the little moments. Normal will return.
The Writing Mom 