Drought

This could be fast approaching a record period of inactivity for me. I actually can't remember the last time I wrote anything besides these usually lame and inconspicuous blog posts. I'm wondering this morning if I should be worried about this dry spell. Should I fret over my lack of creativity, or more accurately my lack of desire to be creative? Should I force myself, discipline myself so that inspiration has an illuminated pathway down which to run?

Nah. It'll happen when it happens. I just can't write at the moment. Can't find the time and I don't want to find the time. I've got other things on my mind, and I'm through with beating myself up about what I should and shouldn't do.

Delightful Deliberations

I'm a creative and passionate person. I've been called a dreamer but I know, with apologies to John Lennon, that I am not the only one. I have tended to make things hard for myself throughout my life while simultaneously wishing for and espousing the virtues of simplicity. I may complain about problems, rail against the onslaught of various tribulations, but that is life, and I love life.

I'm on the verge of signing a contract for the publication of my fourth novel, A Muddy Red River. I don't like details and fine print because I'm a big picture kind of person but am I unhappy about having to go over the fine print of a publishing contract? Hell no!

Preview A Muddy Red River here

A Lot like Me

A couple of mornings each week, I go out for a run accompanied by my iPod shuffle. Shuffle is a pretty good word to describe my style in the initial phases of the workout. It takes me a while to find a stride and I have to spend a lot of time stretching before and after. I'm always amused by how stiff and sore I feel when I start, and how I feel like I am dying throughout most of the journey around the suburban circuit. There's pain in my ankle. My knee aches. I can't breathe. My legs feel like anchors. At the end, after I've sprinted home and onto my porch to begin my warm down, I feel good, and I'm pleased that I compelled myself out onto the unforgiving bitumen and concrete. This discipline is of benefit to me: body, mind and soul.

During these self imposed torture sessions, randomly selected songs from my playlist provide impetus and sustenance. It's all rock, mostly hard, and heavy metal. Sometimes, I listen to the songs. Sometimes, I erratically move my arms and my head which really disturbs my rhythm and sometimes, I even gasp along with familiar lyrics. The music allows me to focus. My mind can run away and play in fertile fields of imagination while my body is left to suffer as a beast of burden.

These road runs are among my most creative and productive times as new ideas and possible solutions to problems are born. In the midst of the noise and the agony, while my body demands I cease the insanity, and blinds me with sweat, I can also reflect and pray. I am prone to excessive reflection. I have a propensity to think too much and to over think, but I recognize this as a gift, and I run with it- pardon the pun.

Yesterday, it was the Offspring who got me thinking with their song, A Lot Like Me, and especially these lines
                                   
                                      Where do you run?
                         Where do you go?
                         When the holes in your truth
                              are beginning to show.

When and where are you particularly creative? What is your reaction to these song lyrics?

Photo sources:
http://good4sports.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/light-jogging-and-longevity/
http://www.medclient.com/tag/running/