With the weight of missing the saturday deadline on my shoulders, and almost-here headache, this newsletter post seemed a horizon away.
I wasn't completely out of ideas or things to write, the snippets I had in mind though were like unripe fruits collected on a forest trail, not ready to be consumed.
The blank screen on the laptop could have helped but I didn't feel ready to open the laptop. My mind parallely started expressing doubt on the need of this newsletter post. It isn't like I am a best-selling author (yet; this ‘yet’ is something I have learned from manifestation/ journaling gurus and I love the concept) with people eagerly waiting for my next post! Such confidence, you know!
The mind loves the easy way out. Most of the choices in life are not between right and wrong, but more or less between easy versus hard. Every time we give up is in that little moment of weakness where our mind convinces us to take the easy path.
I knew this newsletter had to be drafted, because of a discipline I am trying to incorporate within myself. I consider an invitation to a person's mailbox as sacred and I want to maintain the dignity of it irrespective of the subscriber counts. Yes, this post may not be as amazing as I want it to be, but every step counts. That resolution sealed the existence of this post but the draft was still blank.
And then I remembered this strategy from cultivating small habits, that on hard days, “Do the minimum, but Do Not Skip”. (I am making this my official strategy for writing!). That led me to pondering on the quote of the week and this week's recommendation, basically thinking the newsletter backwards.
This week’s recommendation is to read your own work- good, better and the best. In this age of unlimited and overflowing resources, we have so much to read and look forward to, we seldom take time to sit back and contemplate our own words. After all, who can interpret our words best, if not for ourselves (if you aren’t a writer, contemplate on activity that appeals to you and reflect on it; the point of the excercise is to find the beauty within).
Quote of the week- I have many I can quote here, but if you can take my recommendation, I want you to select something that rings true for you.
Here is the poem I found from my notepad this morning, that bought a smile on my face:
Doors are too direct,
can I sneak some hope
through the broken window?
The way sunlight barges in
without permission or invitation
yet lovingly welcome,
can I send songs of my heart
through the half open window?
Me on this side, you on another
secure in our personal space,
Let's share lives
within the boundaries
of window.
P.S. I never opened the laptop. I drafted this in the mobile as soon as the idea came in. What is your strategy to write on hard days?
Phenomenal piece! I love reading it. Absolutely, our brains fight for the easy, not for the right. I'll incorporate that strategy into my writing. Keep up the good work!
Well, many, if not most, days for me are hard to write because of a continuous headache that's been going on for 2 years, my depression and anxiety, and that ever deepening rabbit hole of insecurities. Of course, for me there is school too which is a world of trouble on its own. I write the first draft on paper then copy it onto the laptop. The smell of wet ink can be encouraging sometimes. Mostly the ideas and thinking of poems happen at night during insomnia, then I forget it by the morning and spend the day trying to recollect my thoughts. Finally, write at night.