With the arrival of Marsha Qualey on the blogging scene here at the Inkpot I will take my leave. I’ve enjoyed these occasional conversations and hope to pop back in once in a while to comment. But this is the first week of the Chinese New Year, and it feels like a new year in this part of the fairly-near east. So I am going to do some ritual cleaning, pitching, and tossing–not go so far as Henry Thoreau’s suggestion that we annually burn all our belongings, maybe not even tossing, just shuffling things along to some new, more appreciative owner. I have an urge to clean my closets and my slate, to see what is left to live and work with.
And then to start to work.
What I will not throw out is Mem Fox’s advice that there are three ways to become a better writer:
1. write
2. write
3. write.
I hope we all write the best words and stories of our lifetimes (so far) in this new year.
I find the kind of cleaning house that you're describing incredibly freeing. It's a way of carrying the most useful parts of our past forward, while letting go of the useless baggage. Makes it easier to focus on the present. Thanks for all your insights on the Inkpot, Jackie! Hope you will pop by in the future!
Me too. I just moved around the whole house so I can have a whole room to myself– a studio to write and make art in. Isn't it strange that when all that exterior is organized, suddenly my brain felt more organized too? Progress is happening, I think the year of the dragon feels very lucky.