I have to be in a certain mindframe in order to write. To Nathan, this looks like I am staring off into the distance, or mindlessly refreshing twitter. He wanders around the house, cleaning up (I picked a good one) and getting progressively hmmmphier with me, while I continue to ignore him.
Writing requires daydreaming. Daydreaming requires that I not be vacuuming.
Honestly, this makes perfect sense to me.
I don’t have a writing room, or a space of my own. I have a desk in the corner of the living room, covered in detritus. If no one else knows where it lives, obviously it belongs on my desk. This is why next to my wedding and engagement rings, is a roll of duct tape and a couple of packets of seeds. Plus a sculpture, some school work, a pink labelling machine and the nail clippers.
This is also why every few days I have to throw all of the catalogues into the fireplace, put the bills back on the mantlepiece and throw toys at my children.
Getting into the right headspace to write things is hard when you have children. Children demand that you be in the moment with them. They have needs and their needs are usually loud and demanding. They need a cuddle, or a sandwich, or a kiss better. They NEED you to create that traintrack immediately and find their pink shoes (NOT THOSE PINK SHOES, THE OTHER ONES) and make them a drink.
It doesn’t matter that the traintrack won’t stay fixed, or that they can reach the kitchen sink and get their own drink.
No. They need you.
I don’t begrudge my children this. If I did, I wouldn’t be purposely throwing myself back into the deep end with another baby.
It’s just that sometimes, I would like a daydreaming room, all of my own. With lots of windows and a wild garden to look out over.
Then maybe, I could daydream in peace.
Comments
9 responses to “Daydreaming counts as working in my universe”
My kids are a bit older now but you’ve brought back a whole lot of memories. 🙂
Oh yes! A daydreaming room sounds LOVELY.
Daydreaming is totally necessary !
Well known fact that repetitive activity helps stimulate creativity so go girl!
Oh that would be sooo lovely. I just know that if I ever got to have one, they would find me and beat down the door… x
Funny you should mention vacuuming.
I used to daydream while I was vacuuming.
Sometimes the suction hose became one of those deep water suction thingys used by treasure hunters to suck up the gold and jewels from a wreck and deposit it on their boat. Somewhere off the shores of Jamaica.
Throwing toys at your kids is a good thing. You’re enhancing their catching skills.
I’ve been enjoying daydreaming more recently… now that the boys are out of the house most days, I actually even started meditating…. me… meditating… really! It’s actually rather nice. 🙂
[…] I do other things to make myself happy – I take time out to read books, I daydream, I buy delicious loose leaf tea and refuse to talk to anyone while I drink it. I take the smallest […]
Yep, being in the moment can be very draining, no matter how much you love your kids. Daydreaming in the sunshine is my idea of heaven too!