Daily Archives: August 19, 2012

Book Writing Saturday

There are things in life we can’t predict, can’t control. The path of our life is what it is, goes where it goes. We make choices and have some measure of authority, but there is also chaos and uncertainty, the things that happen while we are making plans.

While I might imagine that the intention to work on my book for four hours each Saturday is my choice, my intention, and simply requires my discipline, for me to make the effort, to show up, life this week had another idea. With the upset of Dexter’s health, his need for my focused attention, my need to eat and sleep, remain sane and upright, took all the effort and energy I had. And if there’s anything left, I have a syllabus to get ready for a class that starts on Tuesday, the same day we might learn the biopsy results.

So yesterday, the only things I wrote were my morning pages, emails, Facebook status updates, a few blog posts, and a sign to tape on our front door that said “we have a sick dog, please do not knock or ring our doorbell,” but nothing for the book–although, I am most likely living out moments that will become scenes, learning lessons that I will share.

Day of Rest

It’s more helpful to stop trying to talk ourselves out of painful feelings or force our minds to stay focused on “the positive” and simply relax by letting our thoughts and feelings be exactly as they are. Over time, relaxing with your thoughts in this way significantly alters the way your mind works. ~Susan Piver

Today, on this day of rest, I will again practice gentleness, relaxing and softening into my thoughts and feelings, just as they are, the tenderness and the terror.