Going Back to Basics

I've been away from my computer, more or less, for two weeks.  I haven't really been responding to emails unless they've been urgent.  I haven't been trolling Facebook much, and I've been ignoring my phone as much as possible.  This is all an effort to get back to basics.  I've been monitoring three email accounts for four years now, one from each of the schools I worked at and one personal address.  This makes for a lot of time spent in front of the computer and NOT writing.  It's been great to get out of that mode.

The thing I did notice about it though was that I was still having trouble coming back to the page.  Each time I sat down to write, I was overwhelmed with the personal relationships in my life.  There's been family illness on both sides of the family, some friends from work have been dealing with heavy life-altering issues, and I've just been unplugged from a lot of my other friends, which causes me to think after them.

In short, the personal was getting in the way of the creative.  I couldn't move into the creative space because the issues of the day were standing between me and the kind of unfettered, meditative thinking I need to create whole cloth fiction.  So, I needed to do something about this.  It's been going on for days, and I had to take action.  What did I do?  I got back to basics.

My writing practice originated when I was young and I often wrote letters to the people in my life in order to tame the feelings of childhood and adolescence.  I decided to take on this task today.  I wrote five letters today in greeting cards.  I hand wrote each of them as I sat in my living room and I will deliver them in the coming days.  I already delivered one to my father for a belated Father's Day celebration.  In the morning, my wife will find a pastel purple envelope peeking out at her from the corner of her purse.  Two coworkers will find letters tacked to the board at work, and my wife's Uncle Bill will receive one when we arrive in Bend. 

It is cathartic to tell friends and family how you feel.  It takes a certain emotional burden off the writer's shoulders to know that you've taken care of your affairs.  The poet Madeline DeFrees once talked about having to "clear the decks" before she could write.  She would tidy up her home and have to get everything put away.  She began to recognize this as a part of her process and she knew a poem was coming.  I feel similarly in that I've "cleared the decks" of my mental real estate.  I've made room for something new and exciting to enter.  I have a blank greeting card next to me, so don't be surprised if the next greeting card lands on your doorstep.  I'm looking to make room because I know there's a story waiting to be born.