Permission from the Universe to Write

This is a short essay that I wrote recently for Smack Dab in the Middle Blog on our May theme about permissions.

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Whether it’s a learned work ethic from my Midwestern upbringing or something that comes naturally, I’m the type of person who feels the need to get my work done before I can play. It’s something about myself that I like – for the most part. I enjoy working hard and looking forward to something fun to do later. When it came to writing, though, I struggled. Because writing was fun and it was always something I looked forward to doing after my work was done. The problem was, the “real work” never seemed to be done and so the fun of writing constantly took a back seat.

Then one day, I either looked at my horoscope or received wisdom from a fortune cookie. It said, simply:

Expand your definition of work.

Five small words, but the message was huge. If I expanded my definition of work to include my writing, then writing would be something that I needed to attend to, not something that was relegated to any leftover time I might have in my day. It felt as though the universe had given me permission to write  – and when the universe speaks so clearly, I pay attention.  

Writing isn’t my top priority or only priority, but now it is one of my priorities – something that’s both a joy and hard work. Thank goodness for this small message that helped me change how I think about writing and how I write.

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