Renewing a Commitment

Feeling a call, so I am answering. Hello.

I’ve been away from writing anything more than “morning pages” — two pages of complete brain dumpage — for what feels like forever. It’s been about 9 months since I’ve written anything of substance or hit PUBLISH.

I miss it. I miss having jumbled thoughts and processing them into a collection of words that goes out into the world. I miss sitting down with my coffee, in the morning, with a blanket, and getting the words down, no matter what. I miss thinking in a writer-ly way. Writers notice things. Artists do too, but it’s different, at least for me. I’ve observed this while getting to know a new writer friend. She notices the old man on the bus looking at a crumpled-up photograph. She finds metaphors and meaning in how the clouds cradle a rising moon while she walks out of the grocery store.

I want to operate in that way again. I don’t need to be a writer to live with that kind of awareness and introspection, but it helps.

My book club recently read The Artist’s Way, and much of what that book covered — buried dreams, fear of being seen, creative blocks — I related not to my visual art practice, but to writing. It has been reverberating in my bones for months, years — WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!

So I am back. I am committing to publishing twice a month. I will be open to topics outside of my art and creative practice, which I’ve mainly focused on in the past. It’s been many years since I’ve written about more vulnerable aspects of my life, but I feel called.

And I am answering. Hello. I am here. And you are too, for now, at least. Thank you for that, and I will talk to you very soon.

Amanda