Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A Graceful Surprise

I call them pearls. I receive six of them every day. Six quiet hours of writing time during which the children are in school.  It's a term borrowed from Virginia Woolf, who named a free day in which to write, a "pure and rounded pearl."  I rarely have a fully free day, and when I do, I waste much of it, so I've chosen to attach the designation to a free hour. It has made all the difference.

To receive six pure and rounded pearls of grace in a day is a gift unimagined, brought to me by daughter Sarah and her children. It makes for more productive and focused writing. At long last I can see the end of the little work of fiction I've been playing with for the past SEVEN years (!!!!), have even gone so far as to claim a goal to finish it off before my next birthday, two months from now, thanks to having grandchildren move into my house.

The astonishing thing about all this is that I didn't realize it was happening until a hummingbird pointed it out during my long sit on the deck this morning.  More about that surprising encounter next post.  dkm

7 comments:

Jane Robertson said...

I think this post could be life-changing, for me! I love the idea of designating a free hour or day as VW's 'pure and rounded pearl' (a quote from her that I haven't come across before). I can see how lifting 'free' time into that category of specialness could result in much greater productivity. It is a different way of seeing and being in the world. That it is a gift conferred by Sarah and her children makes it all the more precious.

Go the manuscript. A birthday present to yourself :-))) When is the b/d exactly??

dkm said...

Whew! Life changing! If it is, the credit goes to VW. The pearl quote comes from "A Room of One's Own" (If I remember correctly--will look it up)

I also like your notion of a different way of seeing and being---reminiscent of Annie Dillard, another authoress hero of mine.

11-02-49 :-)

dkm said...

Can't find the va Woolf quote. Must be in one of her journals, I've read all but #4 so must be in 1, 2, 3, or 5!

Jane Robertson said...

Annie Dillard is a new name to me...

dkm said...

American author from Pittsburgh PA ---writes a lot about the science and wonder of the natural world---Pilgrim atTinker Creek is her best known book and my favorite

Jane Robertson said...

Thanks Deb :-)

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