Hitting a Dry Spell

 

Even If You Have To Squint

“See your imagination dawn

Around the rim of your world.”

John O’Donohue (To Bless the Space Between Us)

          If you are a writer or an artist—actually, anything at all—you know what it means to go through a dry spell. These two years of pandemic created isolation caused one enormous dry spell for many people—especially me. I’m glad to have Thanksgiving behind us—even though I do enjoy the food, friends, and family—so that I can begin to think about escaping this isolation. I’ve had my booster shot, and hopefully, I’m good to go. The problem now is, “where?”

          One of the things that happens when you hit a dry spell is that your imagination becomes tunnel vision. It’s hard to imagine anything at all except cold empty branches. My solution is to turn to books, to read about landscapes in other places—and to watch movies—The Holiday (UK, LA), The Piano (New Zealand), and a whole bunch of incredibly dark Northern European television dramas (Finland, Sweden, and one in Iceland). The landscapes are so different and starkly beautiful, but they didn’t spark my imagination. Shows about serial killers rarely do.

          Maybe the doldrums have their place. When creativity escapes you, maybe it’s time to sort through the stacks of paper in your office, or clean under the refrigerator, or dust the tops of the bookcases. Maybe it’s a good opportunity to sort through your six-thousand back emails or clean out your storage room. Have I put you to sleep yet?

          That’s how dry spells are. They’re like sleep-walking—you’re there but you aren’t there. I wonder if you ever have them—these deserts where creativity goes to die? I’m ready for my imagination to “dawn around the rim of my world.” I know it will. And when it does, I’ll feel juicy again—just like the bare maple tree in my front yard, the sap will rise again. Isn’t that how it works? Birth, creativity, stagnation, death, rebirth. If we can just be patient with the dismals, we’ll see crocuses spring from the ground. I hope your day is brilliant.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane