A WRITER'S REST

The other day a friend of mine reminded me that I have not been blogging very regularly. She’s right. I have not. And there is a reason; one of which I am keenly aware – I’m taking a brief rest.

One thing I have discovered in my life is that the learning curve I am on is always curving. I used to believe there were seasons for learning, but this is not true. Learning is a constant, and the difference is how sharp the learning curve is. Over the last several months the curve has been brutal, and beautiful as a result.

As many of you know I have been working on a book that is due to be published in Fall 2013. This little fact is directly tied to my steep learning curve. I learned a lot about the craft of writing, about the publishing process and what makes words, sentences, paragraphs, pages and chapters work. But there was something else I learned.

Writing is soul work.

With each word I typed I had an overwhelming sense I was not just spilling information on a page for others to soak up. Rather, I was engaging in a spiritual exercise that required all of me – heart, mind, body and soul. The task of writing was more demanding than I ever imagined, and tired me out more than I expected.

Several weeks ago I turned the manuscript into my publisher, and the tiredness hit me hard. It is a good kind of tired. It came with a sense of satisfaction knowing that I have been doing good, rewarding work. But I was still tired.

Not long after I handed in my manuscript, I went to Southern California with my wife. One day were on the beach with a new friend of ours who is an author. I asked her questions about writing, books and life as an author. In the midst of this she said, “A friend of mine just told me that I need to rest. To literally stop writing and everything … for a year.”

What she didn’t know is that while she was relating what her friend said to her, she was really speaking directly to me. I needed to stop. To rest. To refresh. Not necessarily for a year, but for a time.

Many people have kindly inquired about my lack of blogging, and wondered why there has been so little of it. I guess it all boils down to those words on that beach. I need to stop and rest. In the next few weeks I will resume my blogging. And I am confident the sun will go one rising and setting with or without a new post. Until that time, may you too find rest.