Day 2, 364 to go.
🎧 Today’s vibe
This is just me showing up (after work) and with a little more energy, encouraged by a great afternoon. I’m about to start dinner, but I wanted to get this down before Pilates, sauna time, and the bedtime routine. (I’ll link my faves next time.)
I ended up reading 16 pages of another book called “Writing As A Way Of Healing” by Louise DeSalvo. I like it so far.
What stuck with me is how DeSalvo keeps saying writing doesn’t need the perfect time or place. You can write when you’re well or when you’re sick, when life is calm or when it’s chaotic. That feels like the point here – not waiting for the perfect space, just showing up. ( I feel redundant at this point saying that, but I mean it.)
She uses her own life as proof; writing kept her going.
She also talks about writing as a way to carry the hard stuff we go through. It doesn’t erase pain or stress, but it helps you hold it differently. Almost like each page is a “rung on a ladder out of the pit”. I liked that idea, or rather, the image.
Here are some things I underlined in my book.
- Writing is a necessity, not a luxury. DeSalvo asks what happens if we treat writing as essential as exercise, good food, and fresh air (p. 9–10). That lands. Daily words as daily maintenance, not a someday hobby.
- Time can be small. She notes writing doesn’t need to take much time; even short sessions count (p. 10). (There’s a later nudge toward ~20 minutes, enough to enter, not enough to overthink.)
- Form is whatever gets you in. Long, winding sentences or short, choppy ones. Fast or slow. Inside or outside. Morning, midnight, whenever the crack in the day appears (p. 8–9).
- Privacy is allowed. You don’t have to show your pages to anyone at first. In fact, keeping them safe can make the writing freer (p. 11–12).
- Writing reframes pain. It doesn’t erase the hard things; it lets you carry them differently. “A sturdy ladder out of the pit,” as Alice Walker puts it, a metaphor DeSalvo borrows (p. 13). One rung per day is still climbing.
I also spent some time reading A Year of Living Kindly by Donna Cameron. Thankfully, there were only four pages to get through, or I probably wouldn’t have made it much further.
She writes about how kindness had always been present in her life, even when she wasn’t paying attention to it. That made me think of writing in the same way. It doesn’t have to be loud or polished to be present. Some days it’s just a line or two in the middle of errands or before bed. But it’s still there.
So that’s today. A few pages, a little reflection, and the reminder that showing up is what this project is about. Nothing more, nothing less.
