If you've been paying attention (and I really don't mind if you weren't) you will have noticed that I took a social media break for the most part of December and into January. While I may not have been "content creating", I was writing and editing away on projects.
I used some of my writing energy on contributing to an online blog for moms called Her View From Home, as well as Imperfectly Perfect Mama. My most recent blog on Her View, titled "Sometimes I get Tired of Doing it All", was posted this week and I'd love for you to take a peak. Writing for other websites and publications helps my credibility as a writer and increases my visibility and, therefore, my book.
Online schooling for the start of January took a lot of my energy as I helped navigate my kiddos, but it also gave opportunity for Ontario teachers to read and utilize the free teacher's resource that is available to mailing list subscribers (scroll to the red contact form on the main page of the website if you want yours!) The resource can be used in the classroom as well as online, but online gives you an option to buy the e-book on amazon for only 6.99!
I started writing the poem If My Oak Tree Could Speak in the summer of 2014. It was during a time of healing. I was lying in a hammock under the oak tree in my backyard on a beautiful July day. It's kind of odd to think that in essence, my debut children's book was born from death. I was healing from a missed miscarriage in both body and heart.
As I lounged there, I roughly wrote the first four stanzas then went inside. And then life went on. I eventually remembered what I had written and looked for my notebook to write some more but I couldn't find it. For 3 years I looked for that notebook. Many years later I found the notebook in one of the places that I had constantly looked for it. It had been wedged underneath my bedside table completely hidden from view. It wasn't until I moved the table, got on all fours to clean in and around it, that I saw the notebook, creased and with dust caked on it. It seems silly to think that I had looked all those years in that exact spot and had not found it until then. Silly and strange but definitely ordained.
You see, I found the notebook at a time when I had picked up writing again after a long hiatus. I was busy being a new mom and learning my new role with infants all around me. I had no space in my mind or my heart to write. But at the time when I found the notebook, I had an epiphany of sorts; a realization that writing was just as much a part of me as my bones and when I returned to it, it felt like coming home. Those years of missing my notebook and not finishing the poem were not wasted years. It's like the Lord held it off for a time when he knew I would be ready to pick up my pen again. When I'd be ready to finish what I had started. When you would be ready to read it.
Sometimes a project needs a resting period; sometimes, we need a resting period. You haven’t given up or lost your focus. But the fire cannot continue to burn without a bit of oxygen. Let yourself breathe a little. Take a break; a rest; a hiatus even. And then, pick up right where you left off.
Well, I've breathed and I'm back and looking forward to sharing some of what I've been working on in the coming months. Don't forget, I'm on Instagram and Facebook as @rachelgreeningwrites. Would love for you to Follow and Like!
Restfully yours,
Rachel
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