Thoughts for a New Year
Happy New Year! Turn the page. Pull out a blank canvas. Move ahead. Here are my thoughts for a new year.
Some Days, Everything Feels Too Big
Unfinished essays are scattered across my desk. Others are still percolating in my brain—half-formed and waiting. And some essays are hidden inside me—ones I know I will never write. Some days, everything feels too big—emotions, life, situations, every single thing. How can words express the expansiveness of what it is to be alive?
A Reading Program by Ray Bradbury
Reading is a challenge for me. I like the idea of reading and enjoy it when I actually do read. However, I have trouble making time and settling down long enough to read. While watching a YouTube video about writing, I came across a reading program by Ray Bradbury: read one poem, one short story, and one essay every night. It sounded easy enough—I could just read short examples of these. I did not realize when I started that Bradbury said to do it for 1,000 days!
Hodgepodge
Hodgepodge refers to a mixed, jumbled assortment of disparate things. I had a friend with whom I used to chat via email. Often I would put the subject title as hodgepodge. It was a warning that I had nothing particular to say, but rather had lots of varied thoughts and ideas to share. Inspired by a recent blog post of Wil Wheaton, I thought I would try that here.
Autumn
Autumn rolls around every year—yet I never feel ready. It starts out fine enough: cooler, crisper weather is a relief from the humidity and oppressive heat here in the South. The leaves on the trees float through the air and down to the ground in graceful, gliding movements.
Why I Do Anything
Being creative is not easy. We are often too critical of ourselves and our creative output. Our work never meets our own expectations. It is tempting to compare ourselves to others. Sometimes I wonder why I do anything . . . or why I think I can do anything worthwhile.
Essays
I have written a hundred essays for my blog since December 2020. These essays include thoughts about creativity, inspiration, music, songwriting, life, nature, genealogy, language, architecture, and social commentary. They represent a part of my creativity. Expressing ideas through whatever means I have available is important to me. Being creative keeps me sane.
Line after Line, Color after Color
I sat down and started cutting straight lines—not perfectly linear, but as straight as my hands could cut. Pulling pages out of magazines and using the colors or designs that spoke to me, the collage took shape line after line, color after color.
Stuck This Week
What do you write about, when you can’t think of anything or you don’t feel inspired? That is a great question. I feel stuck this week. I don’t want to write something just to write—and it be uninteresting or worse yet, not even worth reading.
Being Creative
I often think about writing a memoir or compiling a book of essays. For the most part, I have lived a rather mundane life. I can’t say that I have accomplished anything noteworthy and I am not famous. However, my life has been—and is—a journey of finding that being creative is important.
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