The habit of art
Flannery O’Connor said that you have to practice the daily habit of writing to be there when the inspiration comes. After being away from my desk for a week and then coming back to way too many social engagements, I miss the opportunity to just write at whim. Every entry is not going to be profound – but you have a better shot if you are doing it every day and flexing your muscles. The long absences make it hard to bring yourself back to the stream of inspiration.
I spent a week engaged with my colleagues, came home to a series of T’s engagements, and then we took four kids to the Insectarium today. Everyone ate a bug but me and the three year old. I refused even though the man behind the bug cooking demonstration was downright an asshole saying if I eat Mac N Cheese I am consuming more bugs than what he had on his cracker, and that if I eat McDonald’s I’m eating three-eyed five legged cows because they have been altered. All this because I told him the bugs were gross. Me thinks he takes his bug cooking job a little too seriously over there at the Insectarium.
But this morning when I sneaked in my bike ride, I had the first opportunity to have space in my mind and to actually think about writing and to think in general. I coasted along the newly formed bike path, which runs down the bayou towards the lake and just had an overall joie de vivre about being home, and the weather being unnaturally fabulous.
The next few months are not the sleepy days of summer. This weekend is Bayou Boogaloo and the Greek Fest – competing Bayou events. Except we’ll be on the beach with the dogs. Then there is St. Francisville for the Tour de Cure and some hiking. Then there is New York to get back on the adoption wagon. Then there is the family coming for six weeks. Then there is Portugal. Oh and did I mention a TON of work to get done?
Yes, you have to commit to the daily habit of art, otherwise there is so much in life that sweeps you off your feet and makes the clock tick quicker.