The One with the Writer’s Block

When you have nothing to write about; write.

It doesn’t matter about what.
It doesn’t matter how short, how long, or how boring the topic.
It just matters that you are writing.

Writing can be hard to do these days.
Especially when you have a full-time job and like to work out for a few hours after each day.
Especially when you like to clean and are picky about where you put things.
Especially when you love people and like to hang out with them on occasion, or sometimes every other week day and most weekends.
Especially when all you want to do at the end of the day is watch Shameless with your boyfriend and cuddle up in his arms until you fall asleep.
Writing can be hard when you are still trying to figure out what you are proud of, what the events in your life mean, what the past few years have made of you.
Writing can be hard when you don’t have a theme;
When you have had nothing to write about for weeks, maybe months on end.
The truth is, you do have things to write about, you just don’t want to.
You have not taken the time to even start.

It’s easy to keep going once you start.
But first, you have to start to get to the “keep going” part.
That’s the only hard part.
So try to begin with “I remember…” or “It was humid, the day I graduated college wearing a pink sari with not a clue of where I was going to be in one year….”
Begin with “I fell in love with him at the start of summer…”
Begin with reading your old journals, with skimming over your messy thoughts of the men you were seeing after college, and how scared you felt of not knowing where your life was going to go.
Begin with anything.  Something.  Words.
Yes, begin with words.

If you are scared that you have not written anything in a while, or not posted to your blog in a few months that you paid a couple hundred dollars for, don’t be.
Get over that fear.
Get over the “cant’s” and focus on the “can’s”.
You can write.
You should write.
If you are brave enough to start, you will.

One day it will happen.  Sometime soon.
One day you will want to write.
One day you will go to the playground of the school you once taught at and swing on the tire swing. You will spin around in circles and understand why the kids loved this so much. You will feel young and try to be more grateful for the little things. Like the way your stomach knots up when you are spinning sideways and the way the sky looks right before sunset. You will want to write about your youth and the youth that remains in you.
One Wednesday you will go to an LA Fitness for the first time and not find 3 lb dumbbells to run with on the Treadmill. You will feel crazy and out of place, and wonder why it is such a big deal that you can’t find them, but really where are the 3 lb dumbbells? You will feel like writing about your placement and privilege in the world.
One day you will see an old friend from college and reminisce about people you haven’t seen in years, and it will make you feel important and old, but mostly sad for those days that ended so long ago. You’ll want to write about the importance of friendship and all the people’s names you have written down in your address book.
One morning you will miss him. You will roll over to wrap your arm around him and realize he is not there. You will come home later to a dark and empty house and the cats will be confused. You will let yourself in and not see his muddy boots by the door. You’ll want to write about love. How crazy it makes you and how special it is to have; how when he comes home the next day your heart will feel full again. When in doubt, write about love.
One night you will see a young couple kneel down and worship Tash Sultana at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit. You will know there is a God for all people, and sometimes she can be found in sound. You’ll want to write about the impact of live music and how when you walk out of every concert you feel a little bit more connected to heaven than you did before you walked in.
One afternoon, you will drink an Ommegang beer and feel beautiful, and wonder how just a hoppy beer can make you feel like that. You’ll want to write about alcohol and what it  means in your life.  It’s like a weird blessing in a bottle.
One night, your thumbs will go numb when your best friend decides it’s a great idea to go swinging in the snow. You would be all for this in the summer, but you never thought about swinging in the winter, in the snow. Kicking your feet in the falling snowflakes and watching your breath breathe out of you in wispy waves, will make you realize this is the way all humans should swing. You wish you had thought of this idea first. You will write about this when you get home later.

And without even noticing,
You started.
You started writing again.