Great Day to Write Outside

hand on tree
Putting my hands on an old tree makes me feel small, in a good way.

I’m at my favorite office again— a picnic table near the bayou. It’s cold today, in Florida terms, and the wind is cutting across my bare legs and reminding me I might have to get my pants down from the top of my closet. I’ve added 2,422 words to my book in the past hour, and it’s one of those days where I’m counting every single one as a blessing. Some days, the writing comes easy. Some days, like today, sitting at a picnic table and hammering away at my laptop actually feels like work.

There’s a playground nearby, and the kids who fearlessly climb and jump and fall remind me of my own childhood freedom. I imagine that as a child I would’ve climbed to the top of the slide and warily looked at a person like me, an adult just sitting there. Wasn’t just sitting there one of the ultimate sins back then?

I have to teach most of tomorrow, then stand in line at the neighborhood Baptist church to wait for my turn to vote. In other words, I better get a lot done on my book today. We have a sterile protocol practical in the afternoon lab, and I’ve realized lately that I’m having an increasingly hard time switching my brain between writing and the healthcare sciences. Sometimes it seems better to have a non-writing job while working on my book, because I can save my writing brain for the book. Other times, I don’t feel capable of making a full shift from one to the other.

I’m so ready to get on the road and start signing my book! It likely won’t be until this time next year that it’s actually in print, but I’m ready to get going. Having a book published is something I’ve always wanted and something I’ve worked very hard for, and now I’m ready to hit fast-forward and find out what the future holds. I have so much more I want to do, so many more books I want to write. I could really get used to sitting at a picnic table every day while writing for a living.

Song in my head: Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes

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