separating dirt from poppy seed

I've been reading blogs lately, mostly to reassure myself.

What I am learning is that blogs are a disciplinary tool. Blogs keep writers accountable. Blogs measure how much we have written.

Or not written.

The little counter that displays how many posts are in a month gives me a push when I have no push left. I'm also learning that other writers struggle just like me. There are months when there are many, many posts and other months when there are only one or two.

I think this is because we get on to other things.

For example I have "gotten on" to reading other blogs which of course takes time that I could spend writing.

But it all seems to work together. I read a blog this morning by Geoffrey Philp in which he lists The Top Ten Things Writers Should Know. Here's a link:

http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/2007/07/top-ten-things-every-writer-should-know.html

Now I don't know Geoffrey Philp ... yet ... but I liked what he had to say. For example, #6 is "Read", and I love to read. Reading is usually what makes me think about writing. Usually arrogant thinking like, "I could do that."

There is a story in Women Who Run With Wolves, an amazing collection of teaching fables and essays by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, about a little girl on a quest who is assigned an impossible task of separating dirt from poppy seed. She works very hard, late into the evening, exhausting herself so that she finally just sleeps the deepest sleep, uncaring anymore about what she must achieve.

And when she awakes, the work is done. There are two large piles: one dirt, one poppy seed.

Mysteriously, I think writing might be like this. At least I am beginning to catch a glimmer of understanding.