This Writer’s Life—Taking a Break to be Grounded Again

by Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo

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Last week, I took a break from my writing for this blog. Just a little breather. I played with my kids, we went away for a weekend, I worked on a loose plot outline for a manuscript. Truthfully, it was nice to have a little more space in my schedule.

This past Sunday was the vernal equinox: the first day of spring. My Sunday free, we took the kids to a local waterfall. It’s in the middle of a forest through which a brook runs. The brook is fed by melting snow from Mt. Wachusett. It turned out to be a nice sunny day, a little cold, but we could smell dirt and the fresh water. (Of course, Sunday was followed by a snowy Monday…) I love times like the equinox – mileposts of the seasons. They are grounding while simultaneously invigorating. They provoke change. They are energizing.

Having a little more time this week, I started to think about how to create a little more space in my life to get the writing done within the confines of my limited time. With the dawning of spring, and the impetus for change ripe, early mornings came to my mind. I used to love getting up early in the hour just before my corner of the world was beginning to wake. The quiet so good for thinking, for reading, for working. But since I’ve had kids, this has been difficult. My nights are not quite the seamless eight hours of sleep they used to be. Plainly stated, I’m tired. But I’ve been getting up early every day this week to try to reclaim that quiet work time. Yeah, I’m still tired, but getting work done is extremely satisfying. I find myself eagerly awaiting the warm times when the windows will be open, a cool early morning breeze chilling my skin just a little, the birds singing in my forsythia bushes. Having this little break gave me pause to evaluate my writing life and realize that – tired or not – only I can create the space in which to do the work.

Even though it was lovely to bask in a little more time in which to focus on my fiction writing last week, inevitably life got in the way, and I got less done than I anticipated. No matter how disciplined I am (not always certainly), nothing beats a looming deadline for getting work completed. But more than that, I realized that work is grounding. Having those pegs, these blog entires, on which to hang my writing life, keeps me anchored in the work. It’s like the mileposts of the seasons: a mooring to the creative spark. And the break allowed for a welcome return. It’s good to be back.

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