I'd like to comment...on seasons changing and writing

If autumn is a glow, then the trees are blushing. We’re six days to the official start of fall, and things are starting to feel that way. Also, folks are decorating porches with mums and even some Halloween decorations. Pumpkin spice is everywhere, for better or worse.

I spent a weekend in Davis, West Virginia, one of my favorite places, up in the mountains, the higher peaks south of me. Davis is a place that brings out all sorts of creative impulses, just as changing seasons do.

This summer, while talking with Chrissie Anderson Peters, she recounted a saying by Robert Gipe: “Touch your writing every day.” It’s such a good bit of advice, and while it seems simple, there are always a million reasons why people who want to write don’t touch their writing in any given day.

I started thinking about this as I’ve been working on hydrating.

It might seem strange to connect a writing habit to hydration. I have an app on my phone to track how much water, or other beverages with some hydration percentage, daily. The goal is based on height and weight and activity level. I even have a fancy water bottle that, connected to the app on my phone, lights at the base to remind me to take a sip. Most days I hit my goal of nearly 90 oz of water. I feel better since I’ve made a concerted effort to hydrate. My skin’s texture seems smoother. My energy levels are higher. I concentrate better. My workouts are better.

We live in an age of metrics and tracking. In any given day I can log food and exercise in an app that will tell me if I’m on track for health goals. I can track my spending in another app. I could track my sleep, too. Books read, progress in learning a language, and so on. I’m not sure how healthy it is to track all the component parts of a life, but whatever aspect we do track seems to get our attention.

And so I wonder if I should track my writing time. Or maybe to just notate each day if I’ve touched my writing. Did I compose something new, revise something in progress? That sort of thing. I could track the time spent, but I think it could easily get obsessive (I gave up a smartwatch when I realized I had gotten stressed out by tracking my daily steps). Still, I think about my desire to write and my actual writing. And I wonder if it might be helpful and useful to track those touches. Maybe even reinforcing.

But also, it can freeing to let go of these metrics. Away for the weekend, with the trees just turning, I found myself paying attention to smaller details, interesting aspects of life that are easy to miss in tracking and categorizing and optimizing. Like, this goat, dozing in the sun. His quiet expression, his toffee-colored coat.

Or maybe the way pine needles change the way we view a building.

Do I notice the deep green? The setting sun reflecting on a window? The patterns of the masonry?

There’s a balance, I’m sure. The juxtaposition of the slower pace and deeper looking and the incessant call of the water bottle felt like conflicting goals. How do we integrate competing attentions? Can we slow down and keep pace at the same time?

I have no ready answer, of course. Certainly there is something gained by pondering the questions, though. And so I’ll leave you with a gentle task, if you’re inclined. Think about what’s important to you, and think about how it manifests in your life. You might be surprised by the questions that surface, or what you teach yourself about what you already know.

News and Noteworthy

Getting excited about the release of my project with Sally Jane Brown, art and poems we call What We Do In The Hollows. Come celebrate with us on October 4, 6-9 PM at Art Bar in Morgantown. We’ll have copies for sale, some limited broadsides, and all the good cheer.

Right now I’m thoroughly enjoying Negative Girl by Libby Cudmore, a neo-noir with a healthy dose of Gen X music. Reading makes me cue up R.E.M., The Replacements, Elvis Costello, The Housemartins, and many others. Or maybe I have them at the ready and the book reminds me I love these bands? But also, her crisp, taut writing makes it difficult to put the book down.

I received my first butternut squash of the season from my CSA. Soup to follow!