There's been little time for writing this week and I'm surprised at how much I've missed all my "regular" writing activities~One Deep Breath, and Write on Wednesday completely passed me by, and now here's it's Poetry Thursday already. The ideas are gnawing away in that little corner of my mind I reserve for writing, a corner that seems to be growing larger all the time. But when I look at my calendar for the next few weeks, my heart sinks a bit, because I see so little "me" time in those squares that are filled with work deadlines, rehearsals, music festivals, and appointments. I've been writing off and on for most of my life, but writing has never been a "consuming passion" ~until now. I feel a deep sense of unease when life crowds in so much that there's no time left to get the words from my mind onto the page. The pen, the keyboard, the blank page beckon me, and it's all the more painful when I sit at my desk at work, typing away on medical reports and billing statements, when my fingers are really itching to tell the stories poking away at my brain.
I'm more than familiar with consuming passions~the piano has been mine since I was a child. Being away from it was like being deprived of basic sustenance~I become irritable, unhappy, and finally painfully miserable. That's one reason I hang on to my job as an accompanist -it allows me to feed that passion on a regular basis.
But the writing passion~that's new, and harder to fulfill within the parameters of my life in general. When life gets busy, like it is now, I feel guilty indulging myself in writing time, when I could be doing something "productive."
So, I'm about to set off on what I call Marathon Thursday~office from 9:30 until 1:00, school from 1:30 to 6:30, then church for bells and choir. Finally, home to Grey's Anatomy, which TiVo is keeping warm for me.
This week's haiku prompt at One Deep Breath was, appropriately, "breath and breathing." Here's mine:
deep inhale for courage shoulders squared i face the day How about you? What are you facing today? Will you have time to indulge your consuming passions?