CELEBRATE This Week XCIV (94)
I’m glad you are here to celebrate! Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.
What seems like just the other day, but was really months ago, I posted a picture of my couch. It was the first day of summer and I snapped a picture because I was intrigued by the way I was transitioning into my summer writing life. The picture on the left was from the beginning of the summer. Yesterday, on my last official day of summer break, I left my writing to wake up the kids (it’s time to get back into the school year groove). Returning, I saw the couch from a new perspective and it made me giggle. I snapped the photo on the right.
At first glance, it might appear that nothing really changed this summer.
That couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Unhurried, my One Little Word for 2015, finally wrapped around me. I realized living unhurried is a practice that takes time to produce fruit. I’ve been floundering as a writer. In the dark, raw recesses of my heart, I thought maybe the gig was up. Maybe I ran out of words. Maybe I came to the end of the line. Maybe being the kind of writer who publishes in public ways was finished. It was time to collect my story privately. It was time to close my blog, put away my computer, and move on.
The thoughts hurt my heart and I didn’t say them aloud — at least not in the stark, pointed way they were lambasting my heart.
Rather, I tried to embrace the mess. I tried to celebrate 10 words on the page, rather than mourning my 1000 words/day. I tried to accept that bridging writing territories was an exercise in flexibility. I tried to find space in my mind to percolate and prewrite and plan.
The more I tried to coral my writing life, hurry it up, and make it stand in perfect formation, the more the writer in me shriveled.
This was a summer of nourishment, of holding hands, and trusting my process. The photos are deceiving. They make it look like I’m the same writer now as then.
I’m not.
This is my celebration on the final days of summer break.
September 19 will mark our 100th celebration! I’m cooking up some ideas for this milestone. Won’t you please invite your friends to join us?
Instagram: @ruth_ayres
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I major similarity I see is…the coffee cup! Enjoy your first days back!
Ruth, I am so happy the summer was replenishing to you as writer. You did seem so sad about writing earlier this year.
The more I write, the more I see it as an act of faith. Your faith carried you through these dark days of doubt and you are certainly changed. Love the pictures! Thank you for sharing this struggle as it's helped me in my own struggle with writing. Happy back to school for you!
This spoke to me and touched my inner thoughts, am I still a writer? Your honest reflections along with your faith always encourage me to continue to dig deeper. Thanks
What a brave move to “percolate” as a writer, not knowing the outcome. I can see the difference in those pictures. I love how you were intrigued and noticed. As alwys you model what it is to be a writer.
Time changes things doesn't it! Patience and persistence pay off!
I celebrate with you and your own growth. We all have to embrace growth within ourselves.
My Celebrate Today
Ruth, I've loved hearing how you've embraced your OLW this summer. Love that you had a summer of nourishment, holding hands, and trusting your process. I've also loved the pics you've posted from your summer.
I wanted a summer of writing so badly, and it didn't happen. I signed up for TeachersWrite and then failed to participate. It can be so discouraging. Thank you for your transparency in your own writing struggles and successes. It helps! I'm hoping to re-establish my writing life one of these days.
Ruth, I adore this!