Wanted: Muse Who Can Water Ski

Sign of a bad blogger: clicking on my own website and being surprised by the template change I did a few weeks ago!

I suppose the vibrant colors feed the need for energy in my life. With my subdued colors, I was looking for peace. I've been consumed by a lot of activity in my real life the past few months, which caused me to suppress my creative writing and blogging. I read a good quote on writer's block that it only seems to inflict writers who have day jobs. True, if my income subsisted on my productivity of my writing, I'm sure I'd find a way to overcome it.

I've always been happy not blending my professional career with my writing, as it extends the leash for creativity. It's like being on water skiis. One foot on the creative platform while another is technology/management. Unfortunately, it's been hard to maintain balance with work taking more of the effort - leaving me to balance on one foot without the the creative outlet to sustain me on the other side. All the while, I hold onto the rope/boat, which represents my family - never letting go.

I tried all the tricks of the experts - keep writing jibberish, pick random words, go out and do something else, etc. I tried to read other poets and exceptional writers to be inspired. Instead, I felt more depressed that it was so easy for them to be so talented. Maybe I've been fooling myself all along thinking I was a writer. Then I would read some of my own work and be surprised.

What worked for me was talking to other people, engaging in discussions for topics that were outside my normal scope of work/home. It was as if someone cranked up the gears in my brain and it started ticking again. Very slowly.

What I needed to do was use my peripheral vision. I was focused on what was exactly straight in front of me. Writers and artists need to look at what is to their sides and find what others are missing. So, rather than writing exercises, I should have been doing eye exercises!