A writer writes, a daydreamer dreams, an actor pretends: which of these roles do I truly wish to be identified with?

Now months after the writing retreat with Natalie Golberg, I am making a new commitment to my writing. The pressures of a typical 60-hour workweek, family, and the business of living are not going to prevent me from finding my voice. It is all about choices. At this moment I alone am choosing not to write. Standing high on the pulpit of my to-do list, projecting to all that would hear, I mute the cliché of having “no time”.

Is time scarce? Absolutely. I have many responsibilities but if I truly want to do this, it is within my reach. The difference is being cognizant of the choices I make and not blaming some nebulous external force that prevents me from reaching my goal.

Writing is my meditation, my practice, and another world that I can inhabit. In the words of Joni Mitchell, I need to be there when ‘the janitors of the shadow lands, flick their brooms at me.”

Who bears witness to this? This blog in essence is my public declaration (albeit to an empty room). On a practical sense, I see this medium joining with my handwritten journal -- used for my warm ups -- the laps I will swim, the blocks I will run; all to remain nimble as mind flows into the ink or the tap tap tap of the plastic keys on this computer.