focus... focus

From the wall of Yak & Yeti restaurant.

Is focus really a good idea? Can one have too much focus? Consider this: we just saw the movie Julie & Julia about Julia Child and a blogger named Julie Powell who dedicated a year to cook her way through Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The film tracked Child's life in Paris as she became The Julia Child and Powell's goal to get through the book and share what was happening with her readers. Cooking was her stress release from her job. But then the challenge became the stress.

Julie's blog was noticed by the conventional media, then it became a book and then the movie. And I think to myself, self, where are you going with this blog? I've talked about cycling, about hiking, skiing, reading, berry-picking, travels. A little about art and politics. Books and music. I've even written about writing. Hmm. So, I'm trying to figure out where to go next, but what I don't want is to have a singular topic because my life is more than just one thing. In fact it is so darn multidimensional that I sometimes do lose my focus.

A few days into the writing workshop, I told the workshop director that I wanted focus. She really couldn't help me find it, darn it. Through writing exercises, readings and discussions, I was reminded that writing doesn't just rely on focus. Sometimes we need to look at the diffuse topics around us. Pull together the seemingly unrelated threads, find coherency in the babble. I've been writing on a variety of topics for the past week since my return, jumping here and there, playing with many forms of writing, and I already see that some of those threads are weaving together. Don't want to force them, though. Must be patient with myself and the words and thoughts that emerge daily.

"Are you going to write something?"

I have some stories. I have some ideas. And I would love feedback as I start putting them out there... stay tuned...