So I did this crazy thing. I wrote a book. It took me a month.

No, seriously. One day I was heading to the mountains to go snowboarding with my son; he was sleeping, and I didn’t want to play the radio. I had the kernel of an idea for a book tickling my brain, so what I did with the silence in the car was to begin writing it in my head. I wrote three chapters on the drive to the mountains; on the way home, I told it to myself, as though it was a story I had once heard. When I sat down to write it out the next day, the whole thing was still there, complete.

And the story kept pouring out of me, every day for a month. I told my friend De Anna that the writing was so easy that it couldn’t possibly be any good, but she said I was being given a gift and that I should simply accept it.

I told Paul that it was so easy it couldn’t possibly be good, and he said maybe it was divinely inspired and that I should simply accept it.

So I stopped saying it couldn’t possibly be good, and accepted it, and wrote it.

While I was writing it, I couldn’t read. I’ve never in my life not been able to read (except when my temperature has been above a hundred and three). Now the book is finished – the first draft, anyway – and I’m at loose ends. For a month, I was obsessed. Now I’m bored.

Since I still can’t read, I thought I’d better just keep writing.

My life has been sort of a train wreck in recent years, and I think I finally got sick of being one of its casualties. It seems the result of refusing to accept any more shit has been some astonishing creativity.

I don’t know what this means, or where it’s going, or how long it will last. I’m annoyed that I can’t read, but the solution seems to be to keep writing, instead. It might all be shit, but I don’t care, and my lack of caring is also something brand new and beautiful.

It’s like the blue of the sky has become liquid creativity that is pouring directly into my heart and soul. All I have to do is transcribe the words I’m being given. It is a time of great delight in the midst of great chaos.

I’ll let you know if it lasts. In the meantime, I hope (as always) that you’re doing some fun things.

Til next time,
Jen
XO