It is dark and silent outside, and I am sitting in my office. I sometimes try out different names for this room because office emphasizes work, and these days, when I am home and in my special space, I am more about rest. Library? There are plenty of books, but library doesn’t feel right. Study? Studio?
I have my coffee, my notebook, too little sleep, and possibly too many cats (where is the laptop supposed to go when the lap is full of cat?). I have come prepared for this March challenge with a new SOL 2023 Ideas document open on my computer to capture the links of mentor slices and today’s inspiration slice open in a new tab.
I promised myself in 2020 I would never again question the rightness of signing up for the challenge, but of course I haven’t been able to keep that promise. Every year I fully talk myself out of it–it’s not a good time, I’m too tired, I’m too busy. I’ll just take this one year off and come back next year when I’m… less busy? Less tired?
But at the last minute, I always talk myself right back in. Usually I feel more prepared, more in a writing space. Usually I’ve been writing more consistently with my students and for myself, even if I haven’t been publishing any of it. Not this year.
The past year has felt like an extended hiatus from writing. I last blogged eleven months ago in April. The writer’s notebook I started in July is still only half full in March. I was feeling good about the daily writing habit I kept from December 10 to January 31. And then I accidentally skipped a day on February 1, and the streak was broken. One day off became two days, became a week.
One thing I know for sure about myself as a writer is that I will always be starting over, always bringing the wonder and uncertainty of beginner’s mind to my practice. It’s not a bad space to write from.
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Once again, my theme is finding inspiration in the words, ideas, and forms of others. Each day I will write in community and conversation with another slicer and link to the post that inspired me. Today’s post was inspired by Terje’s Start Where You Are.
the dirigible plum 
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