Photosynthesis

Sometimes you just need to change your space in order to change perspective.

As many of you know, I recently moved to a new house.   This new place is going to have a nice little office space for me, that I’ve just barely started working on.  There’s also a great big yard and a nice sunroom and most importantly, lots of natural light.

The old place was…well… a cave.   It was dark, and muted, and felt very small even though it is technically bigger than the place I’m in now.    There are many writers for whom a small, dark nook is exactly the right place for them to bang out their work, but I am not one of them.  I need space. I crave light.  It’s almost as though my writing is directly fueled by photosynthesis.

While living at the old place, I struggled mightily to write anything, much less a song.  Most of the songs I’ve written in the past two years have been started while I was elsewhere, either in a hotel room, at a conference, or on vacation.   I was sometimes able to finish a rewrite at home, but for the most part had to work very hard against the environment to do so.

I’ve only been in the new house full-time for a little more than a week, but I feel a change already.  I started working on a song this week, and was able to work on it for a few minutes at home.   Sitting in the sunroom for a few minutes with the cats, I catch a few ideas as they float by.   Standing out in the yard as the dogs run around joyfully, a turn of phrase occurs to me that I make a note to use later.  I take deep breaths of the air and close my eyes to feel the sun on my eyelids, and I can almost feel them converting something inside into words.

Despite the piles of stuff and stacks of boxes, despite not knowing where everything belongs just yet, my creative self is opening up and letting in the light.  Hallelujah.

Mood Lightning

Listen to the rhythm of the rain that’s a-fallin’…

Here comes the rain again…

I love a rainy night.

Apparently, songwriters everywhere love Stormy Weather.  I’m no exception.  When the sky is overcast and gray in the morning, or when lightning shoots over the neighborhood at night, a voice inside me says, “Yay!”

A gloomy day makes me contemplative, while a full-on lightning storm makes me want to dance around the house.   Often, I just end up staring out a window in awe, humbled by the tangle of destruction and renewal offered up by Mother Nature as a reminder of my relatively teensy spot on the planet.

If the rain hasn’t actually started yet I love to walk around outside, feeling the electricity of the impending storm and, in the Summer, the warm, wet wind that almost makes me believe I’m near a beach despite being landlocked in Atlanta.

Once inside, there’s nothing better than a cup of tea or coffee and a book (either to read or write in) and then, inevitably, a nap.

Why are so many songs are written about rain?  Maybe because, if the weather is bad enough, we have an excuse to call the whole day a wash (ha) and do something we don’t usually give ourselves permission to indulge in. Rain is a great excuse to relax and gaze internally instead of focusing on all of the hustle and bustle of a regular day.  When we slow down and focus on ourselves, some of the words that have wanted to spill out may start to trickle down to the page, finally.

Whether we love it or hate it, are saddened by it or made joyful, the rain tends to inspire.  How many songs can you think of that mention rain in the title alone?  I can think of a dozen easily.  I’m sure there are hundreds if not a thousand.

Next time you find yourself completely depleted and in need of some time to get back in touch with yourself and your writing, look to the sky.  If there are clouds on the horizon that would make a sailor tremble, call in for that mental health day, prepare a mugful, and take it easy.

Blame it on the rain.