I'm trying to concentrate on work, I really am bit it is not easy today. Air-conditioning system is apparently working, if the coin-sized gooseflesh on my arms is any indication. My small ceramic heater is still chugging away, though. Hard to think of writing today, but I did have a memory of a memory, if that makes any sense, hit me when I walked outside a short while ago. It made enough of an impression for me to want to go home and write in my journal about it.
A particular way the air smelled, fresh and warm, made me think of when I was young, and how me and my brother and sister loved when the sun would finally go down and we'd take big Mayonnaise jars out into the back yard and catch fireflies. Something about the air today, the warmth, the sun, that "earthy smell" (which fireflies have!) brought me back.
I've just ordered myself the two highly prized and coveted Clairefontaine journals that I love so much. As soon as I get them, which should be tommorow, I'm going to start writing about the air, the sun, the flowers, the trees and the fading cold air around me. Spring is here, thank goodness. Spring weather can't come soon enough. As for the fireflies, I'll be watching them,when they come, too.

The Power of Negative Spaces

Every now and then I will read something that refers to "negative spaces." I am not quite certain what that means, but I have the feeling that it has something to do with not trying so hard at things. In this world that seems lazy and unambitious, but that would not be what I mean. I mean a "pulling back" from pushing at something that just might benefit from a bit of space. It is like loving someone who is going through a trying time----it is human nature to want to "fix" things, but often only time will reveal answers. Even modern medicine is hell-bent on treating just about everything, even when the outcome is futile or senseless. We've forgotten that the human body has the power of regeneration. It is the same way with writing. Often times I just get in my own way. I am concentrating on how I am saying something rather than on what I am saying. That means that my reader, if I am lucky enough to have one, will be inclined to do the same thing. I need to forget that I am a writer, need to forget that I am writing and just need to concentrate on a good story. And I can't forget the importance of daydreaming to the creative process----concentrating on colors, details, moods, the cadence of speech should not be forgotten. So I might just sit with my notebook and look out of the window of my family room at the tall, lonely and bleak looking tree in the back yard, with its twisted branches splayed out against the sky. I'd like to see what surfaces. What immediately comes to mind is that in just a short time, that tree will be full with leaves. But for now, I'll enjoy what the negative space might yield. And if you are a thinking and feeling person, I'd suggest you do the same.