A kernel is sometimes all it takes. A feeling, a word, an image that sums up how we are feeling, a verse from a song. Store them up, write them down.
In those years of relentless parenting with three under fives, I often had a feeling, a desire to say something which would be snatched away in the chaos. But creative mothers, let me encourage you that although one of your most testing times, this is also your time of rich material to be mined. When I was trying to get started on my book about parenting, creativity, and faith, I knew that I had feelings about certain things that I wanted to write on but I just didn’t have the time or the head space to make sense of them. So I made a file for each subject area and would just add a quote here, a poem there, a feeling here whenever I could grab a moment. Sometimes they were scribbled on bits of paper and stashed on my desk until I came to unearth them. And then a year or so later when I had the head space and time, I wrote it all up and it came together quite quickly because I had all my material waiting and ready.
So take it one day at a time, enjoy the crazy times and see them for what they are.. all the exhaustion, relentlessness and the rich lessons they bring. Store up your material like squirrels for the winter and when the time comes to write, you’ll be ready.
elisabeth pike 