Seasonal Cycles, Interruptions, and Blogging
By: Lorelle VanFossen
Tags: calendar, creative space, creative time, energy, habits, rituals, schedule, seasonal habits, seasons, winter
Category: Blogging Tips, Writing
Winter is here. A fine coating of snow covers the ground and all is white with an undercoating of green.
It’s winter in the Pacific Northwest.
A modern holiday song from Seattle spoke of “Christmas in the northwest is a gift God wrapped in green.”
This is a happy time for me, my woods adored in a white blanket, temperatures down to levels comfortable for me, torture for others, the damp welcomed in my spirit, gray skies with an occasional peek of sun, and a quiet peace within the forest as wildlife have moved on, and many others are napping.
I step out and the cat follows me through the snow to the mailbox. A ritual. A ritual beyond seasons. It’s more than a ritual, it’s a habit. A healthy habit.
I think of how my blogging habits are set by season and habit.
In summer, outdoor work requires my attention early in the morning. I’m often found in the dirt weeding and watering my precious garden that supplies me with most of the food I require from Spring to Fall, and even into early winter. By nine, the temperature is high and the sun drives me into my office to work until one in the afternoon when I take a two hour respite for food and anything that keeps my hands off the keyboard for those few hours. By three, I’m back at it until seven for dinner, then I return for another two hours or so before evening tasks and retiring. Most days of the week when I’m not teaching or meeting with clients, this is the routine.
In winter, little outdoor work requires my attention in the morning, so it is a brisk walk in the cold then the schedule continues.
Until I’m interrupted. Some weeks, I think interruptions are a way of life. The wash machine breaks down. A repair person is called. A leak in the well-made roof suddenly appears. The roofers are called in to fix it. The car breaks down and requires repairs. The truck, the alternative transportation, breaks down before the car is repaired. A friend’s mother is dying and needs comforting – hours of comforting. A friend is leaving town to live in a far away village with the natives for a year and I’m in charge of the going away party. A student requires extra hand-holding and tutoring, and I find myself at the college for hours helping them catch up. The cat gets stuck in one of our 150 ft high trees and requires a tree climber to rescue the poor thing so I can get some sleep after 9 days of meows echoing around the forest.
These are the interruptions of life, tasks that break our habits, our rituals.
They also break our blogging, our creative rhythm.
Many will tell you not to give up your creative space and time, to keep those appointments with yourself to keep yourself on task, focused.
That’s always easier said than done.
I say, let the interruptions be your inspiration, your motivation to work harder and concentrate greater when you take those moments to return to your blog. Interruptions are lessons. They push us to be more than we are, often asking us to be greater and stronger than we think we can be.
Use the energy of the world around you, labeled as interruptions if you will, to give you greater insights into how the world around you works, and how you can share the lessons learned along the way.
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