Dear Reader,

Just as we’ve gotten used to the beauty of the morning sunrise here in Ohio, Daylight Saving Time swooped in to steal it away. No one likes an hour less in a day, what with all we have to accomplish. Many of us approach fall with the thought that when we turn the clocks back, we’ll *absolutely* devote that hour we get back to doing something we love: walking, writing, spending time with someone special, napping. But what if we approached our hours like that now, and didn’t wait? What if we found a way to carve out a chunk of time for ourselves in every day to do what calls us?

Lovely thought, and somewhat of the idea I had writing this week’s Let’s Write lesson on finding physical space for writing. I’m a big believer in thinking about where we’re headed, but not necessarily following a map to get there–and having a place (or places) to call our own when we want to drop into writing is half the battle of getting to the page.

Speaking of spaces, the popular conversation this weekend is about how it marks the anniversary of COVID quarantine. I’m resisting the urge to write a lot about it, because my life has changed so much in the last 366 days that it’s impossible to process, but I am finding myself thinking back to where we and the world were then, which took me through my journals where I came across this poem I wrote after a conversation with a student on Zoom: Back to School* Pandemic Poem 2. I’m thrilled to say Poem #1 is with an editor under consideration at the moment, so we’ll see where that ends up!

In addition to the challenge of finding physical space for writing, we often, as creatives, find ourselves blocked as a result of comparison. It’s such an easy thing to slip into unawares–admiration of a fellow author’s popularity, the way another writer weaves their words, the seemingly carefree nature of a colleague’s daily work–but can damage us into silence. Though I found myself there often in my younger writing years, it doesn’t affect me as much now, but the pull is still present. This was a chunk lifted from a journal entry.

Although I have one less hour today in which to enjoy my time before heading back to my classroom tomorrow for the introduction of children for the first time this year, I am not going to waste my day lamenting the missing hour. Writing, walking, a little basketball tournament action, and a meditation or two between the monotony of chores should do it! How are you spending your Sunday? However it works, I hope it brings you joy.

Happy Writing!

xoxo

Beth