- to pass the winter in a torpid or resting state
- to be or become inactive or dormant
Do you ever feel the need or desire to hibernate from your writing--to become inactive and dormant? With all the Christmas and New Year's activities this past month, I feel like the opposite has been true. While I love the holidays, I also do like returning to routine and writing calls me back like a long-lost friend. However, it is also true that even in routine I get pulled in different directions and writing gets put on the back burner more often than I care to admit. And thus I must fight to be able to hibernate "to" writing rather than hibernate "from" writing. Is there anyone else out there that has this same dilemma?
Julia Cameron's book, The Right to Write, has some excellent thoughts and exercises for writers. I recently read the chapter entitled, "Loneliness" and felt it spoke to this "hibernation" subject. Here's a quote from the beginning of the chapter:"So much has been written about the loneliness of the writer's lot that it feels like heresy to report the truth as I know it: in my experience, not writing is a lonely business. The minute I let myself write, everything else falls into balance. If I get a dose of writing in my day, then I can actually socialize with a clear conscience."
Her words got me thinking--maybe my issue is that I'm NOT writing and thus easily pulled into other things, things that sometimes are of no value. Part of my problem is that I feel like I need a big chunk of time in order to write, which isn't true. Half an hour here, 15 minutes there. Even if it's just a quick writing exercise, it's still writing. When I've done this is the past, it rejuvenates and refreshes me and yet I seem to easily forget that. Needless to say, I am still working through all this.
Cameron also goes on to say that writing is a "balm for loneliness"--that it connects us to ourselves and then to others. I would agree but I would also like to add to that. As a follower of Jesus, I also believe it connects us to God. He is our Creator and He created us to write. He put in us this desire, this need, this "gift" (If I may say) to write. So when we write, we are glorifying God and praising Him for the way He made us.
THAT'S the right perspective--and THAT'S the way I need to view writing.
