Happy Sunday, Everyone!
It might be that you’ll remember that, a little while back, I was posting about putting what mattered first.
Sleep was going to be my baseline, I was going to shape my schedule in order to get the important stuff done around the stuff that I couldn’t avoid.
That night, I was walking the talk. I even got to bed early.
And got hit by nightmares.
I don’t get them often, and the memory of them usually dissipates within seconds of waking up.
This was a boss-level nightmare. I can still remember fuzzy bits of it a week later. It woke me up. I got out of bed and tried to pass the darkened closet. And I had to turn the light on.
This was about 3 hours before the alarm went off. The alarm went off and, after 8 hours of sleep, I woke up Jangly as a set of broken guitar strings.
Physically, I was pretty well rested, but mentally…
Not so much. I went back to bed for another two hours. I don’t remember what I dreamed about.
After a total of 10 hours of sleep, I woke up feeling pretty damned fragile. I stayed that way until about noon, when things returned to a more even keel.
Half a day gone, and I don’t second guess the decision. I knew I wasn’t in any shape to write that morning.
I think, if you’re being honest with yourself, you know the difference between “I don’t want to” and “I’m unable to.”
Was I, physically, able to go upstairs and try writing? Sure. Would it have been the best use of my time considering my priorities? I don’t think so, especially when you consider that I fell asleep for another two hours.
Obviously I wasn’t rested, mentally.
So I adjusted. I wrote longhand during my lunch break.
This was another bit of adjusting. My lunch break is usually a reading time. I still got a little bit of reading done. For some reason, I am physically unable to write and eat at the same time. There is an utter disconnect in my head when it comes to shifting focus to pop something into my mouth without biting off my fingers and typing. The most complicated thing I can handle while writing is taking a drink of something. Anything more complicated than that, and all bets are off.
I may not have had a stellar word count that day, but that doesn’t matter. I kept my eyes on what was important and I got something done.
Now there may be folk out there reading this who have it much harder than I do. When something wrecks you, it wrecks you for the entire day, or week, or for however long it takes. And I’m not saying that you *MUST* do your art regardless of what happens.
It happened that I was able to pull something off that day. Might be that there’ll come a day (again) where all I can manage is to get through the day alive.
That’s ok. That’s everything. Without you, that thing that you do, that only you can do doesn’t happen.
So do what you can, and remember that it’s ok if you need to adjust on the days that you can’t, either partially, or completely.
Take care of yourself. That includes getting help if you need it. Take as long as it takes, then come back to us.
We’ll be here – we are here – for you.
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Be sure to stop by the Freebies page for story Excerpts.
I’ll see you on the 9th for the next Five Thing Thursday.
Until then…
Be Safe, Y’All.
Time: 6:27 pm – ish
Music: Fit for Rivals – Crash