Confessions of a Distracted Blogger

By Carol Woolum Roberts

I have a confession to make.

Since the beginning of July, I have been very distracted.

I feel like I sit down to do a task, and my mind is going a million directions.

We had a lot going on this summer, especially in July, and my thoughts were all over the place.

But summer can tend to be like that, in our day to day lives, in our garden, and in our creative lives as well.  And we tend to get distracted from the tasks at hand.

For me, summer can mean going places with friends, having family come to town, spending time with my family in town, planning trips and spending time with people because the weather is so nice.  Summer has us going here, there and everywhere.

The summer garden needs care through watering, fertilizing, finding slugs to get rid of, deadheading, seeing what vegetables are ready to be picked, and making sure everything is healthy.

My creative life does best by having certain things happen to start my day off right.  If those go away because of distractions of life, then my creative life tends to be a bit helter-skelter as well.

But for me, this is part of the ebb and flow of my life.  Summer for me is a time of activity.  The weather is nice, so we want to be out going, and doing, and seeing people, and experiencing things.

I feel I need to anticipate those active times a bit more and not go totally off the rails by obliterating my morning routine.  I think I need to come to a compromise.  Instead of the four things I would like to do each morning, only do two a day, and rotate. 

Is there something I want to try and do every day?  Then do that thing and add one of the other disciplines that seem to ground me on Monday.  Then switch to another on Tuesday.  Maybe I can make this work.

The days are getting shorter as I notice the darkness of my room when my alarm goes off in the mornings to go for my walk.  As the daylight decreases, my time outside for going and doing also decreases.  I tend to slow down and hole up more in my office.  Then I tend to resume my normal morning routine.

Fall begins on September 22 this year.  That is 35 days from today.  I need to pay attention to how my rhythms start to slow, and become more focused on my tasks at hand.

But for now….it is summer…and I am ready for a ride up the river!!

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What tends to distract you from doing your creative work?

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