Thanks For Sharing

As I sit down at my computer to write my story, I freeze up. My stomach twists and turns like a nightcrawler in the rain. My head screams “I DON’T WANT TO!!!!” It would be so easy to switch on over to some vapid website where I can pour it out but not put myself on the line. My fingers itch to check email or view the latest celebrity news. Even to write about how I can’t write, oh, woe is me. Devious fingers.

But then I remember. This is normal. This is expected. This is part of the process, this anxiety that nothing will come, this fear that what comes will be crap, this terror that I will be exposed. Normal, all normal.

So, what if, instead of turning away from the fear and hiding in the sand of busywork, I face it? What if I listen to the fear? I’m not saying I should let it win. I’m not going to agree with the fear. Instead, I will listen to the fear, and I will say, “Yes, fear, I hear you. Thank you for sharing, but I have to go work now.”

Simple as that, “I hear you, but I have work to do.”