Writing on Silence

I have nothing to blog about. I’ve been watching meditation teachings on-line, vicariously participating in a meditation retreat in Australia, and my mind is quiet. I can write, but I have nothing I need to blog about.

Not a thing.

This is the perfect state for writing, when I can simply slip into the story and write, without the distractions of a busy mind. Of course, life around me is busy: visits with family, phone calls, appointments, the course I’m teaching  – I need to prepare for it, and attend. And I need to blog something, even when there’s simply quiet inside.

And so I struggle to write about silence, when I’d rather be writing in silence, immersed in my stories.

Maureen

Creatures In the Garden

My battle with the squirrels continues. I bought a new birdfeeder, a mesh cylinder I fill with nuts for woodpeckers and flickers. But the squirrels are determined to break in. They’ve bent back the edge of the wire mesh, untied two of the three knots holding it up, and chewed half-way through the rope. I’ve now threaded a plastic lid on the rope above the feeder, and that seems to have stopped them, for now.

Their attention has returned, instead, to the metal basket holding suet. Yesterday I spotted a squirrel sitting on the tree branch, holding the basket, having hauled it up by its rope. I yelled at the squirrel and he dropped it and ran away, leaving the basket hanging open, empty.

Still, the birds are happy. We have a regular flow of sparrows, redpolls, chickadees, woodpeckers, pigeons, magpies, and flickers, depending on which feeder is full. Bunnies have left droppings underneath, so they must be scavenging, and the squirrels are ever present.

It helps me miss my garden less, buried in huge piles of snow.

Maureen

How’s The Writing?

I’m teaching Writing For Children Part II at the Alexandra Writers Centre. We’re focusing on writing itself, as the students found writing was the hardest thing last term – stealing time from jobs and kids and home life to stake out a little writing time. I’ve decided we’ll talk about that at the beginning of each class: How was your writing week?

And I’ll go first. Every week. If I have a really bad writing week I’ll have to fess up, and if I have a great writing week I can share the how-did-that-happen.

Simply knowing I have to talk about my week on Tuesday has settled me back into the writing routine I lost over Christmas. Well, before that. Late November. And it was gone during the flooding and when we travelled and… somehow it feels like a fractured year. Now I’m trying to push past the distraction to settle into a solid writing routine again, a minimum of two hours every morning focused on writing or rewriting, rather than editing or admin work or email or blogging or one of the other endless tasks that arise to distract me further.

It feels good, settled and balanced. I want to go deeper, to write more, and still the distractions arise. I’m glad, now, for an eight week course to keep me aware of exactly how I’m doing. How’s the writing?

Maureen