A Check In

Sorry I have not been blogging. All is good with me. This has been a busy quarter.  I am happy and well, and my knees continue to feel stronger and better!

What am I up to?

A teaching schedule that basically takes up two full days ( I hate starting at 11am!).

Normal fall committee ramp us.

The finishing touches on an edited book (Healthcare Social Work: A Global Perspective, Oxford U Press)

Tons of wonderful clients (get on the waiting list, if you dare!!). Far more pro bono coaching that I have done before- nothing like a xenophobic despot to create more work for all of us.

Just now completing the first draft of my thesis for  my MFA in Creative Nonfiction (five months early, I know, I know, I am freak). Oh, how close I am to crossing off this bucket list item!

(random side note: will I really ever use, Rich Furman, MFA, MSW, PhD?? I can tell you one thing, I will use MFA often!!!)

December begins the start of a far more "normal" period, and will be freed up a good deal. Expect blogging to pick up :)

Why Writing Is Not Hard #12

Yes, if you beat yourself up enough! Certainly, if your belief is that the writing process is anxiety producing, horribly painful, shameful, and otherwise dreadful, than of course writing is hard.

It feels painful, and in the moment of experiencing your emotions, they are all consuming.

I am not unemphatic--I just know that how you currently feel can change, as I have witnessed many dozens of times.

And THAT change does take hard work.

Writing Is Not Hard #11

I have really repeated myself a great deal over the past couple of weeks, have I not? So, what is the essence of what I have been trying to communicate?

Writing is not inherently hard; it just is.

What makes writing hard are the cognitive appraisals, beliefs, evaluations and schema you hold about writing, your work, and yourself.

Change those, and writing transforms.

More importantly, change these, and you, and your relationship to writing, transforms.

Why Writing Is Not Hard #10

I sit in my chair—it is overstuffed, off-orange leather--which I have had for 17 years. It is wearing out, but the amount of sentimental value it holds transcends the cracks and stains. I often have a small dog in my lap—a really cute one at that. I get paid, usually indirectly, to think, to play with ideas, to play with words. I do it every day. Things get finished. Some things don’t. I breath. I clear my mind—I have learned to stay I the process and not worry about outcomes.

I have learned to stay I the process and not worry about outcomes.

I have learned to stay I the process and not worry about outcomes.

I have learned to stay I the process and not worry about outcomes.

120 articles and 15 books but not worrying about outcomes.

Huh.......