I’ve been absent for a few days. I hope my useful, informative, insightful blog posts were missed. I haven’t felt much like working for several days. First, I had some sort of summer cold and was feeling more like crashing on the couch than blogging, editing or anything else pertaining to work. Ever feel like that?
Then came my birthday. I cancelled my birthday celebration because I didn’t want to infect my mother, aunt, sister, daughters or anyone else.
As some of you know, I love cats. This year, I started a new blog related to cats and came out with a book of true cat stories. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.
I don’t think I have ever been without a cat or two or more. And recently, we invited a little barn kitten into our home, named her Lily and fell in love with her. She was born in a barn alongside 14 other kittens (to 3 mother cats).
Even though we inadvertently adopted her when she was only 6-week old, she was thriving—until the morning of my birthday. One of the older cats was evidently playing with Lily on the 3-foot carpeted cat tree when she knocked it over on top of the kitten. It was an awful scene. Despite the blood and obvious shock the kitten suffered, x-rays revealed no broken bones. The vet thought her jaw might be broken, thankfully, it was not.
After observing Lily for a few hours, the vet sent her home with us and we’ve been on kitten watch ever since. It is day 3 and she is still sleeping a LOT—hopefully because she is healing. She is eating (yeah) and drinking water.
Practically my whole focus has been on this precious, innocent kitten since Saturday as we do everything we can to keep her comfortable and to help her heal. That’s one reason why I have been remiss in keeping up my blog. But mostly, I have just been darn sad and haven’t felt like doing anything other than caring for the kitten.
It occurred to me this morning, though, as I contemplated my blog post for today, that everything in our lives has the potential to affect our writing. For example, I know writers who:
• Write in order to heal—they journal about their thoughts, problems, feelings. Some write their memoirs as a healing process.
• Write of their philosophies, experiences and adventures in order to teach and share.
• Write in order to change minds or, perhaps, the world.
• Write in order to learn more about who they are—in an attempt to find themselves.
• Write to relieve pain, guilt, fear, anxiety.
• Write to work through grief.
And sometimes it’s really hard or even impossible to sit down and write. When we’re really hurting or we’re focused on a problem in our lives, for example, our concentration is anywhere from zilch to really messed up.
I wonder, how do you handle your writing deadlines and obligations when there is “stuff” going on in your life? Have you ever used writing to work through a problem? Have you written about your troubles as a way to heal?
I’d like to write a blog on this topic. Perhaps your experiences will help others. So please join in with your stories.
Either use the Comments feature at this site or contact me at PLFry620@yahoo.com.