Meanderings at 2 am

by Marcy Pusey

It's 2:00 in the morning.

Jet lag is kicking my behind.

I thought I had it all figured out and taken care of... that I'd beaten this beast. Then came midnight, my thirsty daughter, and jet lag cued my brain to process life.

All of it.

Not a very convenient time to process the whole of life.

But the perfect time to write this post.

It made me wonder how many others of us are awake right now with jet lag. Or a move. Or any change. Actually... I know for a fact some of you are. And I know how easy it is to lose touch with your writer-self or illustrator-self.

That life can easily swoop in with all its noise and hoopla and make you forget that there's a core piece of yourself that needs attention.

Lots of attention.

But it sort of sits there quietly until everything around you settles down and you can see it again.

And then you realize why you're such an emotional mess.

I mean, other than the big move or the change in jobs or the change in your child's development or (fill in the blank).

You might handle everything much better if you kept writing. And sketching. Because even though we are truly passionate about children and literature and our careers... we also just really need to work out our art. If all the rest didn't exist, we'd still be drawing and painting and writing and editing. Because it's been built into us.

And maybe the swirls and whirls of summer just threw everything out the window and you have to make the dive back in. I do.

Well guess what? There’s one really great way to re-connect with your artist-self.

On August 23, we are having our annual SCBWI Germany/Austria grill-out. This won’t get your next manuscript written or your next illustration sketched out… but it WILL give you the motivation and inspiration to get back to it. Rubbing shoulders with your other creative friends has a way of doing that. And knowing you’ll have to answer questions about what you’re working on might even give you an inspirational boost before you get there!

And if you’re not dealing with jet lag or any other significant change… and summer is your most prolific season of artistic work… then just come so you can giggle at our blood-shot eyes and blank stares. And eat some yummy food. And feel really good about your accomplishments. We’ll celebrate with you.

All right, it’s 3:30am now and I should probably attempt to sleep. Otherwise I’ll be a total mess when I see you in Stuttgart in a couple weeks. Because I will see you in a couple weeks… right?