Monday 1 August 2022

GIVE ME STRENGTH! by Penny Dolan

July was good and busy but I'm feeling worn out.  STAMINA! That's what I need for August.

                                            Whippet - Wikipedia 

 Yes, STRENGTH and STAMINA, although not the "added to dog food" kind.

                                                 Meindl (company) - Wikipedia

Stamina for walking? Definitely. I need a pace-setter striding beside me to keep my speed up. Too often I drift into a dreamy, plodding reverie, getting slower and slower of foot, rather than speeding along in the right spit-spot Mary Poppins style.  

                                                     File:Litter Bin in Bristol.jpg - Wikipedia

Stamina for advanced admin? Yes please. I start with determination, opening up the old boxes or dusty files and I look at the contents. That is when the energy changes. I become mesmerized by the small, interesting memories, the maybe's, the possibilities, the re-plays. I repack the contents, just in case, for now, even when I should be enjoying a brisk Mari-Kondo and casting it all away.  

                                                    Reading - Wikipedia

Stamina for reading?  Unbelievable in a bookworm from the cradle, but yes. It's so easy, now, to be lured by any of the screens with their comforting illusion of company, contact and constant "knowledge". I have to close down the buzz and noise, and let my reading self find the longer slower track. I need to take time, tune into the rhythm of reading and get that essential stamina back again. I'm tired, but not exhausted, thankfully, so it's time for an early night and an open book. 

                                        Writers Clip Art Free | Clipart Panda - Free Clipart Images

Stamina for writing? The obligations of a contract and the need for money can bring a most necessary energy. However, without those, where does the stamina come from? Although there's a power and value in creating something all for yourself, there's also something energizing in the faith that you have something to say or a story to tell and that there's someone, maybe, out there to hear it.  

Can I find that faith? Will it give me the stamina I'm searching for? Too early to say for sure. 

But, on the other hand, writing and publishing this post is a great way of catching the energy as it flies. 

Anybody out there. listening?

                  Free Images - cloud clouds blue sky 

  

 

Penny Dolan

@pennydolan1

6 comments:

Joan Lennon said...

Deep breath and ...

Go for number 4 first, bolstered by 1 and 3. 2 is more of a September thing anyway, right?

Susan Price said...

I hear you, Penny! -- My get up and go has also got up and left.

Penny Dolan said...

Monday thought: Maybe the Lionesses had used it all up?

Now feeling almost ashamed to have muttered so negatively after all that footballing effort.
Maybe what the post was about was about feeling low on joy in my recent writing game?

Noting your suggested order here, Joan. :-)

Let's hope, Sue, that August becomes a helpful month all round, even if that's in seeing other paths and places.

Jenny Alexander said...

Me too, Penny. My recent non-fiction with a new publisher was altogether not a pleasant experience and since we finally signed it off in June, tbh I can't be arsed with writing. When the energy's low, I give in gracefully and take a break, so I've been off on my travels and not even thinking about it. I think the trick is to enjoy the break, but you do have to be able to have faith something new will spark up out of it.

michelle lovric said...

Giving in gracefully ... you have to be a mistress of restraint to do that! Penny, you are chronicling your tiny stamina fails so minutely that you have convinced yourself they are bigger than they are. Pardon them. You will be fine, I am sure. xxm

Jenny Alexander said...

Haha no - not restraint - more advancing years!!