Comments on: A Universal Law

By: Loose Leaf Notes » Blog Archive » The Sun Goes Down on Café del Sol

Loose Leaf Notes » Blog Archive » The Sun Goes Down on Café del Sol — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:06:06 +0000

[...] the café has been a Floyd hub and a beautiful downtown second home to many. For six years the writer’s group I belong to have been co-hosting monthly Spoken Word Open there with Sally. I don’t drink coffee [...]

By: sentientmarrow

sentientmarrow — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 16:24:20 +0000

This post is priceless and so very encouraging. Thanks, I needed that!

By: inlandempiregirl

inlandempiregirl — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:43:10 +0000

Thank you for this post. I feel sometimes I need to give myself permission to sit and think, brainstorm, create, and write. Why? We all need that time. My blog has helped give me purpose for my writing.

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:59:26 +0000

Another great post. Very inspiring. And motivational. Thanks, XINE

By: OldOldLady Of The Hills

OldOldLady Of The Hills — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 03:34:00 +0000

Great words Colleen. Words to live by, really. It is wonderful to read this and be reminded that the path is there if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other….!

By: Ruth

Ruth — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:39:47 +0000

Anything that makes you happy and doesn’t seem like “work”, paid or unpaid, has got to be worth the time invested.
Blogging is a hobby for me that can take a lot of time, but I’m not working now and I do what makes me happy.
Hope you find doing this regular column very satisfying!

By: zhoen

zhoen — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:47:05 +0000

Yes!

By: deirdre

deirdre — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:26:27 +0000

Sometimes I feel so guilty for all the time I spend writing and reading, especially blogs, but then I remember how it all feeds my soul.
I’m sorry I haven’t been around here for a while, though. I’m using Bloglines to keep me notified of updated blogs and for some reason yours doesn’t update. I’m missing out on too much good reading by relying on the service. I’ll make a point of checking in through my own links list.

By: colleen

colleen — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:36:51 +0000

I hope so too, Tabor! Becoming unleashed has its own set of problems. Sometimes I feel like I’m only now just starting in the real work world (of a paper shuffler). No benefits or paid vacation time. I got out of debt before I started this phase but now I have to live simply to remain that way, to stretch one income (Joe’s) into two, because my writing income would be like living off tips.
Bonnie, come on down!
Jennifer, you’re doing something right. I can tell by your writing.

By: Tabor

Tabor — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:18:04 +0000

I found this so well written. Concise, consistent and true. I followed you on your journey. But I chose the 9 to 5 route and have had some regrets, but perhaps no more than you have had in your separate journey. I hope when I retire (soon) that I will be able to return again to that creative girl I put on the shelf so long ago.

By: Bonnie Jacobs

Bonnie Jacobs — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:23:37 +0000

I want to join the Floyd Writer’s Circle, so I guess I’ll have to move there?

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:13:49 +0000

I believe every word of what you’ve written, and yet have never been able to take the full body plunge into the (work)life I long to lead at the expense of the (work)life paycheck I now earn. It’s a sorry, sorry thing sometimes. But then again, the limits on time can often help the creative process ferment just a little bit quicker. Somehow, most days, it all gets fit in there.

By: colleen

colleen — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:17:33 +0000

Well said, Pearl. Our calluses are ink stained, or these days carpal tunnel. But really, our whole bodies are involved in mining the words to go with our feelings.

By: Pearl

Pearl — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:57:45 +0000

Yes, well put. If someone is just sitting or just writing, it doesn’t mean nothing is being done or learned. The time put in by driving oneself to understand and express and resolve is as much an exercise as manual labor, just outwardly different.

By: colleen

colleen — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:55:12 +0000

I understand the fury. And the more work we produce the more work we have editing and organizing it! For me, my writer's foundation was having the forum of our local community newsletter, The Museletter for the past 20 years. Then, when my brothers died in 2001, it seemed as if everything I had written before that was just preparation for writing about grief an loss: The Jim and Dan Stories. In the end, my motto for writing and any creative pursuit is this: The more you do what you love, the more it grows in you. Jeff, I'm semi-retired now. ( I provided full-time foster care for a man with disabilities for nine years after making jewelry and working in a bead shop before that.) So this is what it could look like. And don't forget our "jobs" and "other life" besides writing gives us so much material. More about my untraditional job record here http://www.looseleafnotes.com/notes/2006/06/a_cottage_industry.html and here http://www.looseleafnotes.com/notes/2006/10/from_dishwasher_to_night_watch.html

By: Absolute Vanilla (and Atyllah)

Absolute Vanilla (and Atyllah) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:33:35 +0000

Great post, Colleen. My biggest problem is self discipline. When I work, it’s like the fury – I can churn out a full length manuscript in a month – but then the trouble is I malinger. I call it composting ideas but the “protestant work ethic” in me, tells me I should be using my time far more productively and earing a far better income. The trouble is, I know that a nine to five job is a detour and not my true path

By: Jeff St Real

Jeff St Real — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:29:05 +0000

Colleen, this post was very timely for me. I wish I had some of that advice when I was in my twenties.
Now, I just hit forty and I’m trying to build that path, stone by stone. Sometimes, I feel horribly guilty, because my writing and attention to my blog (and others!) can be a distraction from my paying job.
Perhaps, I should redirect that guilt in the other direction.
So it may take ten or fifteen years, but I do have a clear picture of what I want to do in “semi-retirement”.
I have one monthly column out there now. Next step, I suppose, should be to look for more.
Thank you for the encouragement!

By: colleen

colleen — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:22:43 +0000

I haven’t been able to hold a “real” outside-the-home 9-5 since I contracted Chronic Fatigue in the late 70′s, so I’ve had to be inventive in that area. And there have been times, I’ve envied those who could. Every situation seems to have it’s pros and cons and there is often a blessing in a burden, opportunity in adversity.

By: susan

susan — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:09:22 +0000

“We are self-regulating. If left alone, we will work; we will create; we will become more of who we were meant to be.”
Thanks, Colleen, this is inspiring!
Right now I am at this point – “hired out to nine-to-five jobs to do other people’s work.”
But there is hope in your post that there is life and creativity outside of working 9-5. Reminds me of the movie 9-5 with Dolly and Jane and Lily, now they were very creative!
Have a great day!