However you celebrate the holiday season, I truly hope you have had a peaceful, joyful and relaxing break.
Amidst the influx of celebrations and gatherings with relatives and friends, non-stop eating, and increased intake of alcoholic beverages, the creative part of my brain has seemingly adopted the two-week shutdown period most businesses observe during the Christmas-New Year period. Perhaps it was the subconscious mandating my mind, body and soul to fully surrender to the joyfulness of the festivities; to cherish and savour the company of those I have willingly chosen to surround myself with. Just like a car needing regular, major servicing once it reaches certain kilometrage, or a body needing plenty of rest to help get rid of a cold, perhaps, this was my mind’s way to slow down and recharge, preparing me for the year ahead.
Regardless of what the real reason might be, any semblance of writing – website-wise or progressing any of my WIPs – has come to a grinding halt. In-between watching the must-see Christmas movies and binge-watching episodes of TV series my husband and/or I need to catch up on, visions I had imagined so clearly become fuzzy as though seen through an unfocussed lens; the sophisticated-sounding words and flow-on sentences echoing inside my head vanishing soon as it had materialised much like a hypnotist could erase part of your memory simply by clicking his fingers. It is even fair to say that apart from writing the Christmas message (published on Christmas Eve), this was the first time I have fired up my computer and started anything resembling writing!
Unlike those businesses, however, there was no telling as to when my mind would resume the ‘business as usual’ mode. Apart from my own personal deadline, there is currently no other stakeholder mandating said part of my brain to open shop, for fear that indefinite closing period would mean losing a certain amount of profit. And whilst I could periodically hear (and entertain) a niggling voice at the back of my mind wondering whether, left idle for too long, my inspiration would ever return, I continue to remind myself that:
a) Track record indicates that it has continually done so; and
b) Like everything, this is nothing more than a phase, and ‘this, too, shall pass’.
Until such time said inspiration returns…
Magic lives in your creative mind, and flows best when you least expect it.
~ Ellen L. Buikema
