Be There Before The Light Arrives

One of my students loaned me a book, "The Writer's Desk" by Jill Krementz. Many well-known writers wrote about "their rooms with a view" and their creative process. Flipping through, what Toni Morrison wrote struck a cord - "For me, light is the signal in the transition. It's not being in the light, it's being there before the light arrives. It enables me, in some sense."

I always get very restless and unhappy if I haven't written for awhile. The writing I talk about here is writing writing, it is not quoting someone, announcing something, writings that have little if any emotional value. As the days are getting shorter, the sun sinks lower each day behind the alders, the seasonal change signaled a transition in me as well. I always get a panicky feeling when the day turns into the night.  I usually resort to a glass of wine, then busy myself with dinner. Sometimes it works to easy my mind because I love cooking; it gives me some creative relief, once it is "night proper" I am fine. One good thing about getting older is that you have lived long enough to see patterns. I have become more and more aware of this recurring "dip" in my days, life and psyche as I get older.

Morrison's words gave me a different perspective on how to interpret light and darkness -" It's not being in the light, it's being there before the light arrives." Days can't exist without nights; light co-exists with darkness. Be there before the light arrives.