Catching a Calm Day

Monday, April 27, 2015


On Friday, we launched our sailboat for the season. Everything went perfectly—unlike last year, when we battled high winds and put a scratch in the fiberglass before we got Freizeit under control. This year could have gone the same way if we hadn’t been flexible.

The marina scheduled our launch for early Saturday morning, and neither Roland nor I was thrilled. But when Roland was preparing the boat, he got into a conversation with another owner who was scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Friday. The other owner had to be out of town that day, so Roland switched with him.

That was fortunate for us. This year we launched in light winds and, as I said above, everything went perfectly. I hope the other boat had an easy launch, too, but that may not have been the case. The winds picked up on Saturday and the clouds cried with those unfortunate enough to put their boats in then. We were grateful that we had the flexibility to do it on Friday.

My writing life is like that, too. I need to be flexible enough to write in the calm periods, even when that’s not what I had originally planned. If I wait until I my scheduled times, I may discover that the light winds have turned into a gale. Maybe my brother is called into work and can’t take my mother to her dentist appointment—so I have to do it. Or my daughter pulls the television down on her head and I find myself rushing her to the doctor. (Okay, that was almost thirty years ago, but you get the point.)

So be ready to write whenever you can. It may be your best opportunity.

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