In my continous quest after finding my Life´s individual rythms, I have lately chanced upon a a key to making writing work, without it being a energetic drain. The drain effect, I have found, comes from sitting too long, immobile, concentrating and staring at a screen. It is bad for my body, my mood and also for the creative process I have found. The trick for me is to alternate physical work with writing in rather short intervals. Like just now: I have been chopping wood on this beautiful overcast autumn day in the woods. Now I am sitting next to the pile of cut-up logs, a cup of First Flush Darjeeling next to me and am typing away on my Mac. Soon- very soon, in fact, as I have found that sitting more than five minutes and staring at a screen does do me good- I will get up again and start carrying wood, cutting, piling it up. And soon- in 5-10 minutes, I´ll start writing again. Works magically. No strain. Just a sweet balance. A balance on many levels: the internal process of writing, and being outside doing physical work. The contact with the elements of the earth as an equilibrium to the logging into the abstract spaces of unpotentiated words yet to be put into the reality of the page.
Time to hit the wood(s). See you when I am done with that one....