Here I Go Again

In the cycle of seasons, autumn is a time of completion. Trees bear last fruit and drop leaves. Gardens yield late produce. Animals prepare for hibernation. The time for dormancy approaches.

Inculcated with decades of September school-year starts, I am out of sync with nature. For me, fall is the time for beginnings. I am dusting off works in progress and fall cleaning. I am preparing to write and create.

Last autumn, I participated in Lyn Thruman’s October Writing Challenge: Writing the Wisdom of the Soul, a writing journey through the major arcana of the Tarot. This morning, sitting in silence, I pulled the Fool Card from my OSHO Zen Tarot deck and was drawn to the begin a new loop of the journey. Here I go again.

OSHO Zen Tarot

Prompt 1: Write about a journey you want to take in life…

October 1, 2014: The journey I want to take has been called “the longest journey you will make in your life.”  The path I wish to travel is from my head to my heart.

October 20, 2015: One year later, I want to take a more tangible journey, one with a simple (if not easy) goal. I intend to travel metaphorically, literally writing to the end the novel I started almost a year ago.

I had mixed feelings about joining NaNoWriMo last year, but a story dropped into my head, so jumped in. I intended to complete a light-hearted novella by November 30, 2014, for a NaNoWin. The idea introduced itself to me as fun and easy, a way to play with writing before I got back to my Big Serious WIP. The concept is fun and easy, but writing it has challenged me.

I wrote, and then I didn’t write. I was inspired, and then I was drained, distracted, and detoured. My excuses reasons are common. Life/obligations/laziness got in the way. Sometimes, I neglected butt in chair time, but often, even when I sat, everything perfectly prepared and aligned, words refused to come. I half-wanted to quit many times, but the idea of Zirka’s Zany Zenanigans is persistent. It wants to see itself in print.

Recently, I’ve been re-inspired. Playing Menna van Praag’s Sentence Game reminded me that writing is fun, and Menna has pointed out that I’m good at it. I’ve also been listening to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic podcasts and book. I am in love with Liz’s approach to and relationship with creativity.

So, here I am on Day 0, stepping off the cliff, leaving past failures and uncertainties behind (may they become compost for a field of poppies). I trust that I will travel by typing to the end of my manuscript and that Zirka’s Zany Zenanigans will soon be in the hands of an agent and publisher. One. Two. Three. Step.

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