Distraction in Two Parts

Losing Count

Each distraction seems to have real value…… 

There really are only two issues:

  - timing

  - hurry up and get it done.

No - hmmm - three things - the third: ‘I need a break’  

that one doesn’t hold water. I haven’t even started yet.

#4 - I need to change positions, so I’ll go and blanch the beans

Of course #5 is pretty important - 

the phone rang and it must be answered, 

but while I’m on the phone (it’s pretty smart) as well as messages - there’s a new photo on there and my texts: it could be the tax office. But it actually looks like a spam so I’ll make a note to call them to see……

Keep my pen to the page - author Natalie Goldberg’s direction ~

but how does that happen when I lift my eyes to stare out the window

Leaving only a blot or a squiggly line on the page

Did you hear that noise? 

Probably nothing 

- but you never know.

It could be suspicious or just the mailman

I’d better check.

The distractions of my life are like 

the pilling on my old polyester afghan ~

each little pill must be removed right away - 

even if most of them have been there for years. 

Bathroom breaks are important - sometimes with great urgency 

I’ll just clean the sink and sweep the floor while I’m there,

Then there’s the cat who demands my attention 

• that last one is a lie:  he sees me sit down to write, 
• finds a favourite chair across from me and goes to sleep. 

Did I mention sitting down to write 

the story or poem or essay that was playing

jumping around in my head 

while I was distracted by everything else?

When will it become my important distraction?

“If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work.”

~ C.S.Lewis

~~~~~

In Defense of Distractions

I sit and I stare

Out the window

At the screen

Across the room 

I’m stiff and restless

The floor needs sweeping

I hear the mailman

The dishwasher needs emptying

I need to think

I know what I want to say

It’s time to feed the cat

Get up and rearrange

I look around me.

Shake my shoulders

I feel the chaos around me

Chaos of my own making

My legs want to move

My arms are tired from being still

I know what I want to say

But I need something besides my pen

Drifting through ordering

chaos into order - my mind quiets

disordered words surround me ~

returning to the page, I write.

“Art has to do with the arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.”

~ Saul Bellow