Ironic?

Is it ironic that I almost didn't do my 20 minutes of writing today because I spent most of the day getting ready to go to a writing retreat with friends?  There were so many last minute things I had to complete: packing my clothes, packing the books I wanted with me, packing cooking supplies, getting church bulletins emailed to the person who prints them, sending emails related to Brick Road Poetry Press operations, other disciplines like Bible study, devotional reading, prayer time, checking in on people by phone, making sure I had directions to our retreat site, and the list goes on. Then when at dusk I arrived at the retreat house, I had to unload my car, prep my dinner, and put on the TV to watch while I ate.  The TV almost allured me into a night of turning off my creative mind and surrendering to the Disney+ creative team behind WandaVision. It sucked me in for three entire episodes. But here is where disciple and a promise to myself kicked in. I have committed to 20 minutes of writing a day. If I can't do it at our writing retreat house, I'm doomed. So I turned off the screen and opened my notebook and handwrote a series of lines, bouncing off the deeply held truth that "in love someone always gets hurt." I tried to restate this idea in as many different and unique ways as I could think of. Again it feels good to keep my commitment and be able to say, I have written. 

Slight Slow Down

With the beginning of the school year, my life seems to be slowing down again a bit. What it means for me is that the whirlwind of summer (when my wife and I take our trips and try to enjoy the time that she’s home from her job as a media specialist) has come to an end, for the time being. We don’t have kids—just a rascally dog that keeps us hopping—so things get quieter for me during the school year. Also this summer was insane in terms of what I tried to pack into it: trip to Alaska, trip to Maine, launch of poetry press, and continued effort for Georgia Poetry Society.

In the next couple of blogs, I suspect I'll talk about my summer in some more depth. Just in photographs alone, I could easily blog hourly until the next millennium.

Here's another sample of the sights from Alaska: