The water runs dry

The ground is packed hard. It hasn’t rained in months.

Writers need ideas and inspirations to keep us going. My walking path in recent weeks has been dry. Oh, the ideas have come but they’ve been slow to generate. I’ll get an idea, but the gap before the next one comes along will be long. It’s like getting a ride to school or work but none for the ride home. It’s like the next friend, bus, Uber, can be long. And when it does rain, it’s enough to tease the ground, but not enough to replenish the reservoir or damn.

When I do get an idea, I massage it. I close my eyes and run it through various scenarios through my brain. I look at the idea from every possible angle. When I take a deeper look, I realize my error. How could I be so blind? I wrote the exact same piece two years ago. No wonder the topic felt familiar. I’m plowing up well-traveled territory. I’m a hardened farmer coming back again and again to the same plot of land expecting a different answer.

I sit with my notebook and write down everything floating through my brain. One minute it’s a grocery list. Yes, pick up some lettuce, carrots, and cucumbers for a salad the next time I go grocery shopping. I write down the books I’ve read in recent weeks. Yea, nothing really there: a leadership tome on messed up organizations and the life and times of a star basketball player. For good measure, I threw in a classic novel about the fragility of dreams and ache of loneliness. But none of the books are really doing anything for me now.

I write down grace, hope, resilience, and love. I think maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something. Yea, nice virtues. Nice words to live by, but it doesn’t really inspire the soul or fill the writing hole that I’m looking to fill. Arrrrragh.

I need to find my way out. I know that it will come. I know the new ideas are out there. I know they’re there. I just need to keep putting my butt in the seat and plugging away. I need to keep trying.

Keep at it Brian. Keep at it Brian.