Honoring the process...

Wednesday morning. It's been a while since I've taken a minute to sit down and write. My goal was to post on this daily. I'll try to be more faithful.

The past two days have been really intense. I've been working on music to sing when I'm back in the islands later this month. It can be an OVERWHELMING task! Because I'm not a native Hawaiian speaker, my language skills (or LACK of language skills) prove to be somewhat of a hinderance at times. I'm trying to honor the songs and the composers by keeping these beautiful pieces of music alive--keeping them them "in the air" instead of just "on the page."

And it's made me feel completely and totally PARALYZED. I didn't know where to begin with the whole thing...

Then, thru a combination of signs that all seemed to be pointing in the same direction, I stopped all of the fussing and the fretting. I took a deep breath. And I dove in. One song at a time. One word at a time. Slow. Tedious. And WONDERFUL.

Remember those books that were all the rage a while ago--ALL I EVER NEEDED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN? Well, maybe I don't agree with that statement entirely... but I will say that by the time we were in middle school, had learned a lot of the truths we need to know in order to survive in the world.

I resorted to using a method that our English teachers used to teach us vocabulary words every week. Slow, yes. Tedious, yes. But that's where the WONDERFUL part comes in... the songs started to sing again. Like a flower opening its petals to the sunlight, the verses to these beautiful songs opened up and new life was breathed into something that had been buried in the dust for a long time. Unbelievable!

If we honor the process, we'll see the fruits of our labor. If we rush around like idiots, there is a great chance we'll miss the beauty along the way. When will I ever learn??

Honor the process.

Happy Wednesday.

Schedules...

Man! Schedules are tough! And they rock!

When I was working in the corporate world, I lived my whole day based on a piece of paper that had my daily schedule printed on it. Each morning, I would arrive at the office and break the day out into "chunks"--meetings, projects, etc. I'd print it out and be on my way with the paper as my guide. It kept me on track. And it was much better than just writing a list of things to accomplish every day--things have a funny way of just being "put off until later" when I operate with a simple list.

For the past year, I've been trying to "find my groove," so to speak. Trying to determine how my creative cycle ebbs and flows. But, just like when I was in the corporate world, I would manage to get some things done and others would just fall into the "later" pile. And it was always the same things that wouldn't get done--usually the things that made me the most nervous.

Yesterday, I decided that I needed to really carve out a chunk of time each day to write. And today I did just that... Not only time to put my thoughts down in a blog, but also time to confront the collection of stories that I've been working on. It's been awhile. I was really afraid that I'd lost my groove... That the stories wouldn't sing to me like that had been doing in the past.

But the most amazing thing happened:

When the appointed time came for me to sit down and confront the blank page, I did it. I sat down and thought to myself, "Ok.... You can do this. Just start putting words on the page. One after the other..." And sure enough, the stories started to sing again. It was wonderful! Maybe they'll always sing when I ask them. Maybe my mind did it because it was just totally freaked out that I was operating on a REAL SCHEDULE again like I had when I was in the corporate world. Who knows? I'm just so glad that the groove came back this afternoon.

The schedule worked for other things, too! Things that I love to do got done. (Of course!) Things that I try to avoid got done. (Hooray!) And at the end of the day, I had a checklist of what I'd accomplished. Herculean efforts and achievements. Not too shabby, I must say!

Moral of the story: Whether I'm living the corporate life or the creative life, I need to keep myself on a schedule. Period.

Happy Tuesday.

(originally published on Tuesday, July 28, 2009)

Writing

I've determined that I need to create a real schedule for myself that includes WRITING. Not just waiting for the muse to speak. Not waiting for the "right time." Instead, I've got to carve a real and, more importantly, REALISTIC time to write each and every day. Especially if I hope to make any progress on the current collection of stories.

Even if I just sit there and write really bad poetry or prose for the allotted time, I've got to do it. I need to start training my mind and my body to accept this as part of my daily routine.

Not to mention, I miss discovering and writing the stories. They bring such joy. And surprise. And a great feeling of accomplishment. Wait, what's the problem? Why isn't this already part of each and every day?

Fear?

(originally published on Monday, July 27, 2009)