Don't just do something, stand there

“Stop it,” my daughters insisted when I beeped for the second time at the car in front of me in the right-hand turn lane. The horizon was clear. The driver was obviously on their phone.

I was in a hurry. I beeped again. Didn’t this person consider we were in a rush to get on vacation?

The night before, I had wanted to “get ahead” on my WRAL posts so I could have a full week of doing absolutely nothing practical (aside from feeding my family), but when I sat down after packing up the house and handling urgent client issues, nothing came out. I looked at the running list of article ideas I keep on my wipe board but couldn’t string two words together. I closed my laptop and went to bed.

But soon after pulling into the driveway of a friend of a friend who had lent us their home, I found myself gazing out the lovely picture window overlooking Nelson Bay. Here in Melissa’s watercolor studio, a whole cavalcade of article ideas rushed forth, unsummoned.

Ann Pachett, Elizabeth Gilbert, John Dunne and other writers have explained their writing process similarly, something to the effect of: “I just have to catch the idea when it comes.” So I sat down and wrote.

Einstein is credited with saying, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

It’s an apt idea when approaching any problem (including a writing assignment) that seems daunting, but especially devising the right plan for difficult circumstances involving an elderly, declining loved one.

Don’t just do something. Stand there.