Getting Started

OK. Here we go.
It is Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, and I am starting my sabbatical in earnest now. I have done some preparatory work before now, and I will take some days off in the future--including New Years Eve, New Years Day, and most weekends, but this feels like the right day to start. My grades from the fall semester are turned in, and Christmas is over, so I have no more excuses.

My plan is to write every morning from 7:30 to 12:30. Of course I will need to allow myself some time for brief distractions and interruptions, but writing must be my first priority. I also have to decide what counts as writing. Does writing in this blog count? I think it should, although I am writing now at 7:02, so it is an early start. Does cleaning our my bookcase and desk count? I think not. I'll have to do that in the afternoon or evening.

One of the first things on my list is to apply to be a speaker at writers conferences. I think writing that e-mail will be my first project today. I am particularly interested in the Wildacres Workshop near Asheville, N.C., and the Chesapeake Writers Workshop in St Mary's City, Md.



Wood Turtle by Olena Nebuchadnezzar

Speaking of Christmas, Brenda gave me a beautiful tapestry, or art quilt, by Olena Nebuchadnezzar for Christmas. I admired it at a shop in Cambridge, and Brenda went back and bought it for me. The quilt depicts a beautiful tortoise--a wood turtle--looking froward among wildflowers in a forest. It reminds me of Tom, a beautiful box turtle who lived with me for 25 years. Looking at Tom, or at the tortoise in the tapestry, I see patience, determination, equanimity and wisdom. It inspires me.


Here is a link to Olena's blog: http://www.olenaartquilting.blogspot.com/

Update: It is almost 1 p.m., and I did write from 7:30 to 12:30. Mostly I wrote applications to speak at three writing conferences, which is sabbatical-related, but not very creative. I also worked a little on revising my poem "Missing Link," with will probably be called "Evolution" in its new form.