Creek on the road

It’s over a year since I have put anything on this blog.  Right now, I am supposed to be grading essays.  I just took a minute to check my e-mail, saw that my WordPress money is due, decided not to waste the fee for yet another year, and here we are.  The picture is one I took on a morning walk when I went to a Kentucky wedding two summers ago.  I started an essay about the trip but never finished it, never even got a good start because it took me back to all sorts of childhood drama, and so on.

Though I write a journal nine days out of ten, I have not written anything “real” in years, maybe even since before I started this blog. It’s weird, but this sort of essay-type writing comes easily to me, maybe because I have taught composition for so long.  When I talk about “real” writing, I mean stories and poems, but these years, even writing simple everyday thoughts is a treat.  Writing assignments for my students and paragraphs for committees at work do not feel valid.  Even the paper I gave at a conference this semester doesn’t feel like it counts, but that is not really true.  Words on the page count.  We have to start somewhere.

Here is hoping that I start again this summer with whatever presents itself, whether I consider it “real” or not. It’s really a matter of setting boundaries, saying no to some things and people in order to say yes to words on the page with all the joy and frustration they bring. Here is hoping that everyone who wants to write is able to start again and that those who are already disciplined can  keep going with joy.

Now for those papers . . .