The Bare Necessities
I live in a basement apartment and the windows are laughable. I’ve seen my 7-year-old struggle to climb through one, sliding in flat on his belly, and landing in our apartment on his arms. Very small windows, so we don’t get a lot of natural light, or natural air for that matter, but sometime last year my husband bought himself a little countertop herb garden with a grow light.
Our garden is ridiculous. Deeply ridiculous. Right now, we’re growing lettuce and rosemary, and some kind of bulb I got from Trader Joe’s, and a cup of green onion roots. And a pink flower my son picked out. And I don’t know, something else– point being, this strange little garden has no reason to work at all. It’s only a little bit useful, and only a little bit beautiful, and we lack the tools or expertise to make it much more than that. But we love it! There’s something so joyful about this garden. We’re just working with what we’ve got.
Five Days of Beginnings came at just the right time for me. I’ve been desperate to start a writing routine of some kind, but have been failing hard. Over and over I try a new thing, but it’s typically setting aside a small block of time and barking to my brain: Be creative! You have forty-five minutes to succeed at all your dreams and I don’t care that you’re hungry! Time to be funny and smart and heartbreaking before lunch.
Which is why I loved those five days so much! It was so helpful to read Shayne Terry: What you write today doesn’t need to be anything more than what you write today, and Susan Scarf Merrell: THIS opening is your FIRST opening. Don’t waste your valuable time there now. And Sara Cutaia: You should just write something, anything.
Jennifer Solheim brilliantly deconstructed the opening lines of “Flaneuse” by Carrie Cooperider and then left us with the sentiment, I regret nothing, from the POV of a little dachshund. And Christopher D. Sims articulated something I’ve always lived by myself: that the very beginning is a map for the rest of the piece. Which might sound scary, but is actually kind of comforting.
I felt encouraged to take the writing lightly but seriously, to sit down and just start, but it really clicked for me when I applied those ideas to my biggest problem. Which is time.
I’ve often lamented, to anyone who might listen, that I really don’t have a lot of time. This problem is real, not imagined. My life has a lot of limitations in the season I’m in– I’m an apartment with very small windows, if you get my drift. Nothing I can do to change that, it’s where I live. I’ve signed the lease already.
I vowed instead to make something out of what I had: I identified three potential writing times and gave myself the permission to “give it a shot” during those times. Maybe I’d be able to sit down. But often, something else would come up and need doing. I tried to take it lightly, no apologies, do my best like all the writers were saying… and I was able to get some writing done every day! Different amounts, sure. At different times, yes. Maybe it isn’t what Successful People Would Do Before Breakfast or anything like that, but I did it. I made my own little garden. And it’s great.
I mean, I’ve seen real gardens. All up and down this city block alone, sunrooms face the sidewalk and there are beautiful, leafy plants in hanging pots… cool ones that I can’t even identify the leaves of. If you’re like me, walking past and looking in, and it feels like you can’t make your own life look like that? A decent, upstanding writing routine for a serious writer? Okay, I honestly don’t know what you should do, but I can tell you that making your own weird countertop garden is actually pretty nice.
Reading recommendations:
All The Living by C.E. Morgan - Published in 2010, this debut was recommended to me by a friend and it absolutely delivered. One of those quiet books that manages to feel so intense despite having only the faintest wisp of plot. It has so much respect for internal life and what its characters believe.
Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith - I got this book as a gift for Christmas, because everyone knows I love short books. This one was charming and melancholy. Made me so nostalgic, possibly because the protagonist is a lot like a young twenty-something me. Enjoyable.
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt and In the Act by Rachel Ingalls - More short books! This silver-spine Storybook series by New Directions is an absolute blast. Delicious novellas, amuse-bouche that will overshadow the main course.
The Librarianist by Patrick DeWitt - I read most of this book on a rare afternoon off (thank you, husband!!!) under a giant fur blanket during the coldest part of January. It is heartfelt without ever dipping into melodrama, warm without pathos. I’m a huge fan of Patrick DeWitt and this book really delivered.
I’ll leave you with this song by Baloo the Bear.
Whatever you need to chill out about in this life, I hope you can find a way this week to do it! <3