Tag: stress

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combat boots and tutus

It’s little secret that my muse, whom I lovingly call Brain, has been out on walkabout since I lost my job.  Between the stress of job hunting and the stress of Pride, she couldn’t handle the pressure and took off.  It happens.  Muses are fragile creatures, after all.

There have been signs of her return, however.  A small plot fix here, a bit of dialog there.  Then there came the deluge.

It was yesterday, when I was meant to be working on an edit, and suddenly there was Brain, rattling off ideas at a hundred miles per hour, scribbling notes and shoving them at me, stamping her combat booted feet to get my attention.

It would be nice if she could focus on the stories we already have in progress, but I’ll take words of any sort after this drought.  She seems to have picked up a half an idea for a story that we started ages ago and has been busily world-building around the idea since her return.  I have about a thousand words hastily written to try to contain it.

Meanwhile, Brain is dancing through my brain in her combat boots and purple tutu, swinging her strand of cheap psuedo-pearls, painting word pictures for me to capture and put on paper.

It’s good to have her home.  And yes, I realize I am a little bit on the crazy side of normal.

Photo by Marjorie Bertrand on Unsplash

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stress is the muse killer

There is no denying that I am super stressed out about finding a job, and that stress has sent my muse packing on what I am hoping is just a quick get-away to someplace nice and warm.  Otherwise, she’s just running from the stress, and who knows when she’ll be back?

The truth is, everything I’ve written in the last two weeks has been forced and stilted and just straight up bad.  I even tried working on new short stories in the hopes that it would kick me out of the funk.

No luck.

I have an editing job to do, and the promise of a few more on the horizon, I have posted on fiverr.com to try to bring in some more work, and even on Craig’s List.  So far no bites.  I may have a one to two month contract job, which I should know about this coming week, and I have been requested to interview at a company in Oakland this coming week as well, though I don’t have a date and time yet.

In the meantime, I am working on keeping myself busy and with Pride just around the corner, that isn’t really too hard.  Maybe I need some inspiration.  I have tomorrow set aside as a day to write…maybe I’ll pull something out of the partially written ideas file and try something new…or maybe try something completely out of the norm for me.

At any rate, it’s Saturday, so whatever you’re up to today, Readers, I hope it’s a good one!

Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash

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a little peace and quiet

There is something special about losing yourself in the wilds, even if you’re still within the city limits.  Walnut Creek has a number of designated “open spaces” where the grasses and flowers are allowed to grow wild, where wildlife is protected, and trails crisscross throughout them, making them a great place to forget the modern world for a little while.

The one closest to me is the Acalanes Ridge open space, thus named because a ridge of hills cuts through the middle of it.  The toughest path is the Ridge Top trail, thus named because it runs along the top of the ridge, taking you up and down some pretty steep hills. There are gentler paths, ones that skirt around the hills, or take you into the valley.  Some trails are long enough to take you into a completely different park, if you so desire.

I have always found that I deal better with my stress when I can do something physical, and hiking steep hills certainly applies.  So yesterday I strapped on my hiking boots, grabbed my hiking stick and some water, and I hit the hills.

For the first time, I hiked from one entrance of the open space to another entrance, across the ridge top trail.  I overdid it a little bit, a little too much enthusiasm, I guess, because coming back, even taking one of the gentler trails back, I wasn’t sure my legs were going to hold out, and by the time I got back to my car, my legs were like rubber.

At one point, my headphones gave out on me (my fault for taking the bluetooth headphones), so the end of my hike was without music.  Even though I was in the middle of an urban area, you’d never know it.  I saw a few scattered people out with their dogs or a friend, but for the most part I was alone.

butterfly treeThere were birds and any number of small animals I never saw, but could hear in the grasses.  There were big fat bumble bees flitting from flower to flower and butterflies galore, and amazing blue dragonflies that danced in the shadier part of the trail.

I didn’t have my camera, but that didn’t stop me from grabbing a few shots of the flora along the way.

There is nothing better for beating back the stress than some serious physical activity, and nothing better for resetting my brain than a little peace and quiet.

I hope you find some of your own today, Readers!