Don’t Mind Me I’m Just Chasing the Morning Light

A fall pep talk.

Hi friends.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t written for a while, I wanted to remind you that at any moment you can just pick up a pen and paper and write. Right now, you can put down your phone or close your laptop screen or however you’re consuming this letter, and you can just choose to redirect your time and energy and make some quiet magic happen. You don’t need me to tell you, but I’ll say it if you like: Just go and write already.

On my very best days of writing my words are so clear and strong and true-headed that I believe in everything again. Like all of a sudden I so passionately believe in love and myself and that we can solve the world’s problems and also I believe in god and rock and roll and that someday, yes, I will fit into those jeans again.

Anything is possible on a good writing day.

This is why I write. Why I crack open the notebook even if it’s ever so slightly. This is also why I get up early in the morning and look for the good light wherever I am so I can take pictures. Because I know I’m more likely to open my notebook if I’ve taken pictures first. This is why I keep my eyes open and my feet moving and my heart beating. Because I would prefer to believe in something than not.

What gets you closer to opening that notebook? Can you tap into your rituals today?

Speaking of notebooks: I brought a half-finished notebook with me on this trip, a pocket-sized one that I wasn’t ready to retire yet. A gray cover, grid paper inside. I had last opened it a year ago. I took it with me when I went to Ireland last year. Inside it I had written a list of changes I wanted to make in my life. I can’t wait to see what I believed in a year ago, I thought.

Of the five changes I had only successfully made one. But at least I made the one.

I believed in the one. That I could do one new damn thing with my life.

What do you believe in?

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.