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Tayari's Blog: 2010 is Right Around The Corner

Posted by TayariJones on December 28, 2009 08:33 AM
Filed under The Writing Life

I almost wrote, "We'll I'm back home now," but after the holidays, it's hard to know where you are. Am I back home, or was I home when I was "home" for the holidays? The overlap with old-life and real-life is part of what makes the holidays so maddening, but also so stimulating for creativity. I have an idea for a new book and the voice really came to me over the last week. Something about displacement, I think. Anyway, I am back in my own-self apartment now getting ready for the new year.

I was also thinking, as I prepared to write this post, how lame it is that every year, everyone says the same thing as we approach January 1. We always say, "This year will be better than the last", or "This year I am going to take better care of myself." "This year, I am going to devote more time to my writing!". You get the idea.

Well, I can't help it. I am going to say all those same things again. Taking better care of yourself is a process and, if we're lucky, every year we get a little closer to our goals. If we have a bad year, we get set back, and we have to push even harder to get things in order again.

2007 was a miserable year for me and the smack-down lasted well into the middle of 2008. I won't get into it, but let's just say, I was catching hell on every front. 2009 felt like an opportunity to make a fresh start and I have it all I had. It was like the universe was helping me out. A $50,000 grant from the United States Artists Foundation gave me the financial flexibility to be able to take a semester off from teaching and to sequester myself in Martha's Vineyard to finish my novel. The money also gave me some wiggle room for some creature comforts like a new bed and a fancy new winter coat.

In this week before New Years I am trying to keep some of that momentum going. Of course I am doing life-hacker stuff like cleaning the apartment, unsubcribing to a lot of commercial email lists (bye bye Land's End!), and organizing my computer files. I am also getting a TV for the first time in twenty years(!).

Once I get the apartment together, and get things physically in shape for maximum productivity, I am going to turn int he other direction and stop demanding maximum productivity for myself. 2010 is going to be a year of balance for me. I want to work hard, but not too hard. I want to dial the stress back and learn to be more content with what I have. I want to learn to be more grateful. And happy.

December 29, 2009 04:07 PM