To find resonance, you need to create. Any creation is an act of tapping a tuning fork and seeing what resonates. Creation is the risk. Resonance is the reward.
– Shreyas Hariharan
I haven’t written at all the past two weeks, except for here. Why? Because I am in the kitchen making or at the stove stirring or at the farmers market selling or on the computer working or on a hill walking or in the lake swimming or in a creek wading or on the water rowing or on my bike pedaling or in my head fuming or in a trance gazing or next to a dog loving or on my phone scrolling or in a chair sitting or at the sink brushing or in my bed sleeping or in the clouds dreaming or in my heart feeling.
Feeling with the tender, electrified ends of a billion and one neurons.
I haven’t practiced my guitar much, either, where I’m memorizing scales. Or should be, anyway. And I feel bad about it. But honestly, maybe I shouldn’t.
One of the tasks that I need to get around to before I can get around to writing the novel I’m meaning to write is the re-reading of all of the notes that I’ve made in my journals, which have to be re-thought, recaptured, before the novel can be written. A writing journal is the sine qua non of writerly procrastination: so close to doing the thing, without actually doing the thing! These tasks are self-perpetuating and feed on themselves, a huge compost bin growing denser and richer and transforming into something dark.
– What If Procrastination is an Essential Part of Our Writing Process
And then this:
My working habits are simple: long periods of thinking, short periods of writing.
– Ernest Hemingway
Maybe, I am just thinking. Waiting to tap.
Things That Nourished My Writing {No, Thinking!): July 6 - 16.
FOOD
Espresso Vivace. My favorite Seattle coffee roaster.
My egg share eggs.
FILM
God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya
Youssou N'Dour: Return to Gorée (I was fortunate to travel to Dakar, Sénégal for work in 2018 and went to Gorée Island).
LITERARY
On Writing by Stephen King
MUSIC
I really like Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons
One of my Shazam playlists. When I’m in the car (which is seldom), I hear a song I like, tap Shazam, and save it to an Apple playlist.
PLACES
Omfk., our garage turned commercial kitchen where we make chocolate. Paired with Shazam playlists on loud speakers with the door wide up, it has turned out to be a happy place during heat waves and pandemics.