Salt Water Therapy

I haven’t been writing everyday like I’m supposed to.  Well, this week I have, but today is only Tuesday.  To be honest, I think I lost my way a little.  I’ve been working on a project (for too long now!) and I’m agonizingly and frustratingly close to being finished.  If I can stay focused.  Which is sometimes hard to do.

Ok, for me it’s incredibly hard to do.

I’m like Dug in UP.  Seriously.  If I walk past a pretty flower I’m toast.  I have to stop and look at it.  My mind often wanders without permission.  Sometimes it’s a benefit, being a writer and all.  When my mind wanders, it usually conjures up amazing images and stories and characters that I can use in my work.  Well, it does when I make time to daydream.

When my mind wanders without permission?

Yeah, I’m usually left with guilty pangs of longing for the mountains, the ocean or chocolate.  And honestly, I don’t eat that much chocolate so when I crave….I CRAVE.

Sure, I’m a little stressed right now.  Sleep is an elusive mistress.  I cringe thinking about “the future”.  I’m staving off bouts of voracious appetite and utter procrastination.  But seriously?  I’m not special.  A lot of people feel these things and deal with these things.  For me it’s a matter of getting back to basics and resisting the urge to do something I shouldn’t or be something I’m not.   Getting back to basics…

And then it hits me.  I haven’t been in the water in well over a month.

Mother Ocean.

I’m unhinged.  For all my love of the mountains, I am a beach bum at heart.  My most precious moments of closeness with nature have come in the water.  I am lured by the crashing of the waves, the taste of salt on my lips, the cool ocean washing over me.  Her beauty.  Her ferocity.

So I say to myself, quit killing three hundred and twenty five words on the art of procrastination and get out there already!  And so I will.  But not before I’ve killed a word or two more…

We all need that personal therapy in our lives.  It’s important.  I have a friend who runs (yuck!).  He says it’s the best time for him to feel peaceful.  Running?  Are you MAD???

Obviously, I’m not a runner.  But you get the idea.  We all have our “thing”.  Heck, some people need therapy therapy.  And I’m okay with that.  Whatever works, as long as it is healthy and brings you peace.

So here is my reminder to myself.  Get back to basics.  Make a plan, a list, a schedule.  Stick to it.  Focus on the task at hand and finish it.  But don’t forget the salt water therapy.