Photo by Sam Goodgame on Unsplash Sheltering in place is more than just isolating oneself. It is in fact--forced aloneness. it is also: confinement, desolation, remoteness, concealment, exile, and quarantine.
Just the idea that this virus can force all of us into our homes and away from family and friends creates depression. Not your everyday depression, but one that only comes when someone feels total loneliness. It is enough to feed all those negative feelings that inhibit our writing. Instead of imagining futuristic worlds, the pioneer life, or what it was like to wander among ancient Greeks, we, writers are wondering if we need a face mask to cook our dinner.
Maybe we need to be more like the Saguaro Cactus. No, I don't mean prickly. I'm thinking more about the tap root and the blossoms.
The tap root goes straight down in the earth to find water. Our taproot is our imagination. It stretches out from each writer is all directions. Some stretch all the way into space, another dimension, or even into a mystic world. Others stretch across the desert to unearth the bones and stories of long-ago peoples and dinosaurs. Still others venture into the psyche of humankind in the hopes of discovering why we do what we do. At times like this, when we are sitting in our homes waiting for the latest report on COVID-19 we need to remember to sink our tap root deep. There is no need to recoil. The pandemic might have tried to prune our imaginations, but it has not sapped it! We can even take a lesson from the blooms that appear once a year on the saguaro. They are beautiful but they bloom at night and fade by day. And, don't we often do our best writing in the middle of the night when the house is quiet? If you truly are alone, or at least feel that way, just pretend it's night and write, write, write.
Stay Healthy--Keep Writing!
Just the idea that this virus can force all of us into our homes and away from family and friends creates depression. Not your everyday depression, but one that only comes when someone feels total loneliness. It is enough to feed all those negative feelings that inhibit our writing. Instead of imagining futuristic worlds, the pioneer life, or what it was like to wander among ancient Greeks, we, writers are wondering if we need a face mask to cook our dinner.
Maybe we need to be more like the Saguaro Cactus. No, I don't mean prickly. I'm thinking more about the tap root and the blossoms.
The tap root goes straight down in the earth to find water. Our taproot is our imagination. It stretches out from each writer is all directions. Some stretch all the way into space, another dimension, or even into a mystic world. Others stretch across the desert to unearth the bones and stories of long-ago peoples and dinosaurs. Still others venture into the psyche of humankind in the hopes of discovering why we do what we do. At times like this, when we are sitting in our homes waiting for the latest report on COVID-19 we need to remember to sink our tap root deep. There is no need to recoil. The pandemic might have tried to prune our imaginations, but it has not sapped it! We can even take a lesson from the blooms that appear once a year on the saguaro. They are beautiful but they bloom at night and fade by day. And, don't we often do our best writing in the middle of the night when the house is quiet? If you truly are alone, or at least feel that way, just pretend it's night and write, write, write.
Stay Healthy--Keep Writing!
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