“The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.”
William Wordsworth
That poem “The World is Too Much With Us” has been a favorite of mine since high school. I’ve muttered those first two lines to myself many times throughout my life. Always wondering if I’m following my heart…doing what feeds my soul.
This month is National Novel Writing Month (otherwise known as NaNoWriMo). Taking the advice of a writing colleague, Valerie Willis, I decided to signup this year. Now, the goal is to write 50,000 words in one month which sounds gargantuan until you do the math. It comes out to somewhere around 1600 words a day. For me that equates to about four hours a day which is an amount of time that I don’t usually have at my disposal. So….I’d decided that this wasn’t for me.
But then I received the NaNoWriMo kickoff email from Anne Lamott. She wrote a wonderful book about writing several years ago: Bird by Bird. Her email challenged everyone to put aside one hour a day to write. It can be any kind of writing, a journal, a blog, a novel, play, poetry…So, that’s my goal this month. At least an hour a day. Some days that might mean 200 words; other days it might just be 50.
But that hour is not a waste of my power. It gives me the perspective I need to care for the people in my life; to do the things that I am responsible for.
So, my question to you Dear Readers: What is it you want to do with an hour a day? What feeds your soul? What gives you power? Do it. Take an hour. And, let me know how it goes.
In the meanwhile, keep the love going,
Martha