Sunday Blog 77 – 26th March 2023
I’m still not sick of that glorious Sunday evening feeling when I realise that I don’t have to go to work on Monday. One year in and it still hasn’t got old. I get excited that I can just do my semi-vagabond creative thing. My working from home thing. My writing thing.
This week though a shadow fell over my days. My manuscript is out for comment so I need to scrabble around with other writing projects. Like the transition stage of labour perhaps, as I get closer to finishing the manuscript I’ve been working on with the Emerging Writers Program, the more doubts and insecurities plague me. What’s going to happen to my writing practice once my Emerging Writers Program mentorship comes to an end? When oh when am I going to get this book done? Will it take the next step towards publication? Does it suck?
And then there’s the parallel work life – because I do need to keep on working at least a bit. How much income is enough?
I dreamt last night I had gone back to my old workplace, and (I hasten to add, none of my real-life colleagues were in it) the dishes hadn’t been done. The staff kitchen was a mess. I realised I was going to have to put up a sign to make sure people did their own dishes. Then in the dream I found myself asking why on earth I was back at the day job?
I awoke to my real Sunday morning. Stretched in bed, made a cup of tea. Here I am, time rich but a modest regular income. A wise friend told me that if you want to work less, you need to tighten the belt. This is true, and it has thrown me back onto the simple moments of every day life. Making time to go down and watch the sunset at night – and not just when the sun dips down behind the ocean, but about half an hour later when it lights up like in this image.
As the saying goes, the best things in life, aren’t things. Happy Sunday evening, and I hope it is a gentle one for you.