Well how do you like that? Today turns out full with promise of a lovely day. We really didn’t have a lot of rain but the green growing things have been refreshed. The maple outside my window is smiling, dancing in light breeze and the sweltering air has been blown elsewhere. We, too can begin breathing again. Perhaps it won’t get so hot today? That would be nice.
I never pay attention to the weather reports so I don’t know what’s coming. My style is not to know or prepare in advance. I don’t study for exams, I don’t take the turkey out of the freezer, I don’t practice piano. If I were pregnant, I wouldn’t want to know the sex of the coming child. I never shake the box for clues to what my gift is.
Today is a gift, even though I am loathe to say something so trite. It is wrapped tightly in a bold colour print paper, or it is bound with a magnificent string. I can take the end of the string and start unwinding. I can take a corner of the paper and start tearing. I can take my time. Patience. Anticipation, not dread. Let’s see where this leads.
I write in the same way, I don’t prepare. I start typing and wander about looking for an end of thread to begin pulling. Where I end up, what is revealed will be left to chance. If I planned, I could do something better? Maybe, like William Faulkner, I should draft the plot and characters in advance and place sheets of paper about the study walls as a map? Then, I might know where to go and how to get there, what to wear, what colour to paint the nursery, which notes are coming. I would be a pro.
Sigh. I am not a pro. I unravel the day, I unwind the muse. I wait for the surprise. Take today for example. Let’s see where today goes…so far, I am having fun. It is also payday today. Perhaps I will be drunk later, lying under the maple tree and singing. Perhaps I will accomplish nothing at all. That has to be ok.
Robert On The Air 