The Inevitable Dip

The workshop went well, though there were a few people missing. I was feeling a little down from the previous session, and having traveled in the intervening week, had nothing new to share. So I dusted off an old piece I was on the fence about including in the book, one about feeling sad and how (as long as you're not dipping too low for too long) it might be okay to welcome and process those feelings. It came out of an incident a while back where a friend was kindly urging me to cure my ills and I was resisting those efforts. We get a lot of mixed messaging about this - you're supposed to feel your feelings and accept what comes, but at the same time, people have very little patience with sadness -- in others but also in themselves. In any case, I'd wondered if the piece didn't advocate too much for crying, but it went over well with the group and I was pleasantly surprised. I hadn't touched it in years, so it was encouraging. I'm a little daunted by the work in front of me, and it gave me hope that maybe some of it might be almost there already.

I'm determined to get some real work done this weekend, but of course first I must clear the chores and errands and other to-dos, so that's what I'm off to do. I try to protect Sundays for writing, but like the cliche I am, I typically spend most of the day farting around. We'll call it part of my process. :)