Spend it All – Day Two – 1109 to go!

Reaching out.
Photo by Lisa Weikel

Well, you know what they say about our “best laid plans…”

Yeah. It’s 10:00 p.m. and I only just got home half an hour ago.

I’m going to try to “bang this out,” so to speak, because I refuse to drop the ball only one day into my 1111 Devotion blogging extravaganza. Regrettably, though, I probably won’t tell anywhere near as interesting a story as I’d have liked. But I did give fair warning in my initial post: I knew there would be days when I would be lucky if I posted even a handful of sentences.

Trust me, though. I didn’t think I’d have to count on that luck only one day into the commitment!

Instead of using today’s blog post to explain the significance of my Dolphin reversed/Jaguar “pick” on Sunday (11/11), which I took as one of the confirmations that I was on the right track in deciding to engage in this 1111 Devotion, I’m instead going to let you in on a tiny dilemma I’m facing, which I find sort of intriguing.

As a writer, I’ve read a ton of enthusiastic and sometimes passionate books on writing, writing “practice,” routines, suggestions, strategies, and tactics designed to enhance one’s creativity. One of the tactics I’ve danced with (since “struggle” is a bit too intense), is the idea that when one sits down to write, when a writer sets aside time to work on a project or even just engage in a timed writing exercise to warm up the creative muscles and get those juices flowing, it is essential that we spend it all. Don’t hold back, it’s recommended. Spend it; play it; run the idea out to its conclusion. Don’t save any of your words for another time. Never hoard your ideas!

Well, I must confess, I do hoard my words. I have hoarded my experiences. Not my experiences, actually, but rather my expression and sharing of them. And I want to change that. I yearn to lay it all out there and let people know how I ended up doing what I do and why.

So yesterday, when I was writing my initial post, I desperately wanted to tell the whole story of all the different nudges I’d received on Sunday that added up to me deciding to actually commit to this crazy idea of 1111 Devotion. Because there were a number of things I took as “signs” and, added together, I couldn’t deny their message.

But then I sat back in my moss colored wing chair, adjusted my laptop as it perched on the pillow on my lap (yes, such a fancy writing station) and realized, “Good Goddess! I have 1110 more blog posts to write! I’m not going to spill all the beans all at once! Heck, writing out all the signs will buy me at least three more posts.” (Ha ha. Three more posts.)

Suddenly, there I was – right out of the box – feeling the lure of “parsing out” challenge the advice to spend fully.

And then today’s session went long and I didn’t get home for over 12 hours (with the commute), and I realized I might blow my vast one day streak of writing this blog, if I held myself to a commitment to saying it all. Especially if I write about the signs, which were neat, but which will take me longer than this to write out.

So you’re stuck with this. Day Two: I managed to post two days in a row. I didn’t listen to the experts and spend it all; but I didn’t hoard my words, or my feelings, either.

Maybe my inclination for parsing will serve me as I barrel toward blog post #3, tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.