Last Saturday I attended a Nonfiction Summit hosted by the Rocky Mountain Chapter Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I arrived sans ideas—I was going purely to learn and be open to whatever might come my way. I have published some nonfiction in the past, but it’s pretty much out of my comfort zone and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to write any nonfiction.

No ideas leapt up to grab my attention while I was there, but I was deeply inspired by the faculty and fellow writers. One writer and friend in particular inspired me deeply. She shared that she’d just been accepted to the Vermont College MFA in Writing. This is a very prestigious and competitive program and I was thrilled for her!

But what I was more thrilled about and inspired by was her trust in her intuition. Early on she had had some concerns about doing the program as an older adult and also paying for it. But something told her this was what she was supposed to do and now everything is falling into place for her.

Listen…and Follow Guidance

I truly believe the Universe supports us in our the goals that are aligned with our Life’s purpose and talking to this writer was a beautiful reminder of that for me.

Over the last several months I have been blessed with an abundance of riches when it comes to invitations to speak and teach. To me this is validation for me to continue to pursue my love of sharing what I know as well as learning from others and having that personal interaction that it is so important to me.

At the same time I felt gratitude and said yes, I was feeling a niggling to slow down, to get back to my own writing. Each yes meant hours of preparation, preparation that was fun and exciting and that I loved, but took me away from writing.

“That’s okay,” I told myself. “You love this. You love the writing. You can do both.”

Which is true. But I wasn’t doing both. I’m still not.

A month ago I wrote about a promise to work on my novel every day, even if it was just for a few minutes. Two weeks later I noted that I hadn’t done it.

I’m still not doing it.

It’s painful for me to write that. I’m always telling writers to make time for the writing. To schedule it. To cherish and honor it.

I suck as a model for this right now.

But the niggle has turned into a gentle but firm nudge. It’s subtle because intuition is never loud and obnoxious. It requires stillness and attentiveness, something I was too busy to give it.

But the nudge cannot be ignored any longer!

So I said no to two invitations to speak last week and am sitting down to see what my current career commitments are and how much time they will take. I will look at my personal commitments and do the same.

And I will write.

And I will tell you I have written.

 

 

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