Summertime…and the living is easy…

 

That’s one of my favorite songs from the musical “Porgy and Bess”.

 

Unfortunately, ”summertime and the livin’ is easy” doesn’t exactly describe life right now. For me it’s more like:

 

Summertime…and the living is still crazy, just like it was during the school year…except now the kids are home 24/7…and I’m about to throw myself on the bed and cry like a baby until eleven.

 

Sound familiar? And how’s that working with your writing? Staring at a blank screen? Distracted by life? Completely verklempt because this is the only twenty-two minutes and twelve seconds you’ll be able to squeeze in for writing today?

 

I feel your pain…

 

I’ve been staring at a blank screen for almost a full week now while also trying to keep my three children occupied (a seemingly impossible feat), the house clean (Why do I even bother?), the laundry caught up (Ever noticed how it  triples during the summer? What is that about?!), and food in the house (Ever notice how it disappears five times faster in the summer? I ask again – what is that about?!).

 

I swear – and you all are my witnesses – next year I’ll be finished with my manuscript/s by summer so that I can just read and research.

 

But…I love writing. It’s like a bubblebath or a brisk walk or a nap. It leaves me refreshed, excited, energized!

 

It’s summertime and the living is anything but easy!

 

So, what’s the solution for my sudden case of summertime blues?

 

I’m going to take a hint from George Matheson:

 

“We conquer, not in any brilliant fashion, we conquer by continuing.” –George Matheson

 

I’m going to continue – even if one day I continue for five minutes, the next day three and the next twenty-two minutes and twelve seconds. I’m going to plop on down in that writing chair and write – as much as is absolutely possible in twenty-two minutes and twelve seconds punctuated by whines and cries of, “Mooooooom (don’t forget the shrill rollercoaster falsetto)! He took my [fill in blank with any of a million possessions that up until that very moment my child had forgotten he or she owned]!” or “Mooooooom! She’s on my side of the couch!” or “Mooooom! I’m bored!”

But school just got out forty-eight hours and fifty-three seconds ago…

It’s gonna be a looooooong (don’t forget the used to be shrill now tempered with puberty plus a few years, rollercoaster falsetto) summer!

 

The Pulitzer Prize winning poet Stephen Spender said, “The best thing is to write anything, anything at all that comes into your mind, until gradually there is a calm and creative day.”


He forgot to add: after the kids are back in school.

 

Got the summertime blues? What cures have you found?

 

BTW, WordPress is adding to my distress (I refuse to believe it’s operator error or, as my husband would say, an ”ID 10 T” error) - it keeps messing with my formatting and my twenty-two minutes and twelve seconds are almost up! So ignore the strange colors and odd paragraphs, please. It’s a side effect of the summertime blues. :0)