One question I often get asked, especially in this season of life, is “how do you find time to write?” For me it always an odd question. I find it confusing that people need to ask that. In fact it is comparable with “how do you find time to get dinner on the table everyday?” It is quite simply necessity.
Dinner everyday for my family is a necessity. I can’t put the kids to bed without some food in their tummies. We all need nourishment to keep us going, to give us energy for everything we have to tackle in life. And writing is the same for me, it nourishes me and sustains me.
Yes, I know getting dinner on the table every evening is often a stretch. I know that sometimes it looks more like reheated nuggets in the oven with a thrown together salad.
But sometimes jut sometimes I have the time to go whole hog, and I spend hours in the kitchen preparing Osso Bucco with melt in your mouth flavours, and standing over the stove stirring creamy polenta to go with it. Or I think ahead and make a chocolate mousse for desert, little glasses full of rich goodness that we can indulge in later.
And I know my writing is often a chicken nuggets version (something quick and easy) or the chocolate mousse (something I prepared a little earlier) and others it is a thought I have been pondering for weeks and developing in draft for a while. The flavours have been marinating and developing and have taken on a depth of flavour.
We don’t want a rich meal every day. We don’t need Osso Bucco when it’s 38C outside, and we can’t eat chocolate mousse every day either, (did I really just write that?!) But we do need to eat every day, and give nourishment to our bodies.
That is what writing is for me, it nourishes and sustains me. It is my sanity. I can not imagine life without the outlet of writing in some form or another.
But that’s me. You may have a different sanity, it might be swimming, or reading, or painting, or acting, or knitting. The list is endless. Have you found your sanity? Because everyone needs nourishment in life. I know I do.
Breathe deeper,
Jodie