A Brief Pick-Me-Up for the Down-in-the-Dumps Writer

I am finding writing increasingly difficult. Covid, Ukraine, the cost of living - pretty grim out there. It is hard not to think, what's the point? Everything is horrible, my writing won't make a difference. Why did I decide to do this instead of being a doctor, a nurse or something useful?

What I forget, is the joy a person can get from reading something. The number of times my life has been falling down all around me and I have managed to lose myself within the pages of a good book. Or I have read a poem and nodded to myself and gone, 'yeah, I get it.'

For me, books have always been a friend to fall back on, but I also get lost in music, films and at the theatre (when I can afford it - which is a whole other blog post). Sometimes, going to the museum and seeing a simply magnificent portrait or landscape painting or a sculpture or anything really - it will blow me away, make me forget my minuscule life worries and give me a moment of pure happiness admiring something glorious.

These are the things I need to remind myself of, and although I don't think my writing is half as good as most of the writers I admire, someone might like it, someone might feel something similar to the thing I have described and realise they aren't alone in feeling that. I may give someone a sense of unity, a sense of being part of a difficult world.

Think about those poems they put on the Underground in London, they are lovely little moments, a break from the boredom of the commute. I follow @allontheboard on Instagram and Twitter. They post message boards from trains stations with poems or uplifting messages which are very lovely, here's a recent example.

 

Image Credit @allontheboard

Just consider your local town and city, I can guarantee there will be a statue or sculpture that you will have walked by a million times, but each time you pass it you probably notice something new, the way the light has caught it that day. For me, it's the Floozie in the Jacuzzi (The artist's name for her was The River - the feminist in me cringes at her local name) in Birmingham city centre - she once was like this (see below).

Image Credit : Birmingham Live - From 2009

Now she is like this (see Below) 

Tucked away amongst the plants. 

 

Although, rumour has it she will be back in a jacuzzi sometime in 2023, which does please me.

But as normal I have digressed, the point is I have reminded myself of the benefit of the creatives in this world - so I suppose I better stay sitting on my arse and carry on with my writing. 

Once again, thanks for reading, please give this a like or share.