Interesting and comforting that just prior to this writing lesson, I opened my writing desk which has been neglected over the past months. Somewhat horrified by the clutter and layers of dust, I began a clearing. That happened and here I sit with the prompt to write about making space. Synchronicity.
For all of the lessons leading up to this morning, I took my journal, my headphones, and a pen and perched with my iPhone on a corner of the sofa in the living room or in a fluffy reading chair in the bedroom, making use of whatever space was free at the moment. Today, I felt called to make it more official. I was writing again, I had returned to the page consecutive days as well as regularly over the past month and this called for writing at the writing desk.
Upon pulling down the top to my desk, preparing for today’s lesson, I paused, knowing I could not write without making space, without clearing the clutter of days folding into months, approaching a full year. I gathered a dust rag, made piles of journals - sorting them into those to keep on my desk for current use and those to store for future words. I pulled out items that had been discarded in the dark depths of my desk: a chapstick, an extra mouse - the memory of it’s use eluding me, a hand creme and a melted candle with a scrape of wax remaining and a faint hint of the salted caramel scent lingering. Piles emerged of items to store in the drawers of the desk, items to keep front and center, and those to purge.
Barstool Mountain notebooks, those containing my current life’s labor, stay front and center as well as my daily writing notebook, and a few select pens. The Mac was resurrected a few weeks ago and resides at the upper shelf of the desk, ready to be taken with me to write in more open spaces. Everything is slowly awakening again in this writer’s life.
I rediscovered the Saraswati candle, lit it for inspiration and light, and placed a sliver of amazonite by the dancing flame. I lit the tea light candle and the entwined fairy lights atop the desk, calling on inspiration in the light and in Saraswati.
My writing desk a clean slate with space for creating, I settled into the day’s lesson with a lightness and anticipation. Treasuring the space to create, to sit with my muse, to pause, to return to word after word after word. It is a rebirth, a freeing, and an invitation. A clearing of the noise. Inviting wonder.
#winterwritingsanctuary