It’s the beginning of Spring. April has new beginnings – we have hummingbirds migrating through and joining our native Anna’s hummingbirds at our feeder. This month we also have the A to Z Blogging Challenge. It’s Camp NaNoWriMo, Letter Writing Month, and Poetry Month. I suspect there are probably more, but those are just the handful we know of.
Are YOU ready for all of that?
I sure don’t think I am. I mean, we’re doing the A to Z Blog Challenge over on our group blog The Writer Zen Garden.
It really helps me to have others to play with, and who will write posts and come up with creative fun things to do.
I think it’s important to realize that it’s heavy to carry the load of all the stuff that’s going on in the world – war in Ukraine, the investigations in the U.S. Capital, the environmental crisis, and the pandemic. Wildfire season started early in Colorado last month. If you look for it, you can find all sorts of awful things.
On the other hand, we have the tools in our hands to help ourselves be resilient through it. There’s a new book by Emmanuel Acho called Illogical: Saying Yes to a Life Without Limits. In it, he has some terrific ideas (and I fully recommend you read it); one of them is about a young child whose mother brought her to a rap concert. The child was sleeping in her arms on the dance floor and wore yellow earmuffs that stopped the sound, allowing her to sleep. And the genius of it is that he translates that to our own lives: wear your earmuffs.
What “noise” is pressing in on you? Is it social media? News? Oscars drama? Maybe it’s something closer to home, like at work or family dysfunction. But we can put on our own earmuffs and drown out the loudness so that we can focus on our own stuff – creative writing, making, painting, singing, dancing… What’s your stuff?
And even more important, where are your earmuffs? Your earbuds, or noise-canceling earphones, or some other tool to listen to your favorite music or uplifting podcasts. If you want to try relaxing a bit, try binaural audio. And then settle in and play with your stuff.
Me, my stuff is writing novels, weaving, and designing lace. What about you?
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Thank you for having me!
I LOVE the site redesign. Looks fantastic!
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Earmuffs are a must right now- love that visual
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Right?? 🙂 It’s a great book; I think you’ll like it.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
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I love the idea of earmuffs to block out painful and distracting noise! That’s an idea I’ll use from now on; thanks for sharing it and thanks for your entire post, which is terrific.
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Writing. I’m Blogging From AZ, too. In fact you’re the one who got me hooked on this particular tradition, Noonie. (winks)
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Great advice! Thanks for writing this, love the idea of earmuffs (noise cancelling headphones are good too). So I have found decluttering feels good, as well as reading, writing and dancing. And a soak in the hot tub, to give an illusion of being on holiday (we have not been travelling for two years). Having said that, beginning to dream of destinations again…
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Great advice! Thanks for writing this, love the idea of earmuffs (noise cancelling headphones are good too). So I have found decluttering feels good, as well as reading, writing and dancing. And a soak in the hot tub, to give an illusion of being on holiday (we have not been travelling for two years). Having said that, beginning to dream of destinations again…
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I’d comment on your great post but I’m off to the store to see if I can still find earmuffs in April. (I so need them!)
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Thanks, @Laura F! I’m glad you liked. 🙂
@Kari, I’m so pleased you’re still enjoying the A to Z challenge. I love how it’s an exercise to “prime the pump” for other creative projects (writing or otherwise).
@Mary, I love the idea of decluttering too. I think you’re right. For me, I am noticing that I let clutter accumulate when I’m feeling overwhelmed, and I think they work together: the clutter adds to the overwhelm, which adds to the clutter. I’ve been following FlyLady lately and love her “just do 15 minutes” mantra. That’s been helping me immensely with my management of both clutter and overwhelm. 🙂
I hear you on the travel thing, too. I miss people. I saw that Phili just reinstated their mask ban. I have plans to travel to Chicago for work for a week on May; I sure hope it’s still safe to do so by then. 🙂
@Laura Rios, your comment made me laugh out loud. I hope you’re having fun earmuff shopping! 🙂