Latest / STOPTIME: Live in the Moment. / Distracted by Distraction: Finding Your Way Back to Creativity
Transcript
- 0:23Lisa Hopkins: Hey there.
- 0:24Lisa Hopkins: It's been a while since I've sat down to write.
- 0:28Lisa Hopkins: And this afternoon when I finally saw a space in my day that I wanted to devote to my writing, it was as if everything from my rumbling stomach to my messy desk conspired to keep me from the page.
- 0:43Lisa Hopkins: I must have spent an hour or more doing anything but writing, including numerous trips downstairs to get a drink, spar with my husband, empty my office garbage, organize my files, and I even made a phone call to my publisher about renewing my distribution for a book that I wrote two years ago.
- 1:07Lisa Hopkins: Has it really been that long?
- 1:09Lisa Hopkins: And then there was the question of where would I do this elusive writing?
- 1:13Lisa Hopkins: I thought about and then ruled out my desk on my Pilates ball, the dock, the dining room table, until finally I settled on where I sat writing this from my office couch.
- 1:25Lisa Hopkins: I can hear birds chirping out the window, and if I look over my shoulder, I can see the gray lake tempting me to come out and play.
- 1:34Lisa Hopkins: Even pulling weeds in the driveway seemed like a good idea at one point.
- 1:40Lisa Hopkins: It's 5 16, almost time to eat.
- 1:44Lisa Hopkins: The cursor blinks happily as I type each word, pulsing, steady, keeping time.
- 1:50Lisa Hopkins: Waiting?
- 1:51Lisa Hopkins: A steady companion or an impatient bully showing me just where I stopped or encouraging me to keep going.
- 1:58Lisa Hopkins: I love seeing the words form on the blank page, but do they mean anything?
- 2:05Lisa Hopkins: Are they good enough?
- 2:07Lisa Hopkins: 524 still writing.
- 2:09Lisa Hopkins: I am so tired.
- 2:11Lisa Hopkins: I can hear my husband out weed whacking now.
- 2:14Lisa Hopkins: Ah, a worthy distraction.
- 2:16Lisa Hopkins: I'm editing my stream of consciousness now, watching as like a pacman, the cursor eats my words.
- 2:26Lisa Hopkins: Blinking patiently, it waits until my next thought directs my fingers to the keys once more.
- 2:32Lisa Hopkins: Something starts to stir inside of me.
- 2:35Lisa Hopkins: A connection to the rhythm of what I write.
- 2:40Lisa Hopkins: Unattached to what it's supposed to be, I start to type more freely, enjoying the gentle clicking sound of the keys and the heat of my MacBook on my laptop.
- 2:51Lisa Hopkins: I'm reminded how unsettled I've felt in my personal life lately, and consider how that may be affecting me more than I realized.
- 3:01Lisa Hopkins: Grace begins to descend as I settled into my corner of my room writing these words.
- 3:09Lisa Hopkins: The harsh sound of the weed whacker pulls me out of my creative reverie with a shock and the realization that I might have actually been in the flow for a few moments.
- 3:21Lisa Hopkins: I'm typing more quickly now, grateful for reconnecting with this part of me and feeling my creative hunger surpass the procrastinator's empty stomach.
- 3:30Lisa Hopkins: It's 540 now.
- 3:33Lisa Hopkins: There's a smile on my face, a smile that knows I'm where I belong in this moment.
- 3:38Lisa Hopkins: And before rereading what I've written, I tell myself that this is enough.
- 3:45Lisa Hopkins: I am tired.
- 3:48Lisa Hopkins: I am struggling with some things in my life.
- 3:51Lisa Hopkins: Things will always threaten to get in the way of my creativity.
- 3:57Lisa Hopkins: But only if I let them.
- 4:05Lisa Hopkins: And remember to live in the moment.