As I contemplated going back to work at the end of my week of vacation, I realized I was looking around the house thinking, “I really didn’t get much done.”
Wait…what?
I wrote every day for at least 5 – and most days more like 7 – hours a day. I have the structure of the book (finally) finalized. More, I have the whole project basically roughed out, except for some scenes added due to structure / flow / plot changes. I’ve thought about how I want to proceed once it’s finished and even came up with a pretty good cover concept in case I end up going the indie publishing route. In other words, I made more progress toward my writing goals this week than I have in the previous eight months. But I still felt vaguely guilty, like I hadn’t done enough with my time off.
It occurred to me that this is one of the reasons it’s so easy to get sidetracked from a creative pursuit. I didn’t get any gardening done. I didn’t vacuum. I didn’t clean. I didn’t paint the living room. I didn’t go to Disney World. There isn’t a single tangible thing I can point to and say “I accomplished this on my time off,” except my book. And I can’t even point to that yet because it’s not finished. It’s not going to be finished for weeks, maybe even months. All I can say is that I worked very hard, I can’t raise my arms due to inflamed tendinitis, my eyes burn like fire…and I feel better than I have in a long time.
Because creativity, and having the time to exercise it properly, is important. And weeks like this remind you of that fact.
It’s easy to look at the way I spent my time and say that I didn’t “do” anything. And only people who have creative pursuits of their own that they love will understand me when I say this was the best vacation ever.
So it’s back to work and routine life. The challenge now becomes, how can I carry the spirit of creativity into the week with me? How can I hold on to the quietly important in the midst of the loudly urgent?
It’s a question we all have to answer in our own way.
`I don’t know what day of the month it is.’ said Scrooge. `I don’t know how long I’ve been among the Spirits. I don’t know anything. I’m quite a baby. Never mind. I don’t care. I’d rather be a baby.
Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol
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