“Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.” – Joseph Addison
I Always Knew I was Doing Something Wrong
Arthur Rackham’s illustration for Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” –Courtesy of Wikipedia
I came across a blog yesterday that listed five things to do. On that list was “Listen to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.” Thanks to You Tube I was able to do just that. It’s a stirring piece of music that got my heart beating faster, and made the rest of my day more energetic. I hadn’t heard this piece in years. I listened to the six-minute recording twice, because once wasn’t enough. I gave the music 100 percent of my attention.
Then suddenly – as visions of Odin’s legendary female attendants, the Valkyries, riding to battle to bring dead warriors to Valhalla danced in my head – I had one of those rare aha moments.
I had always thought of myself as not interested in music because I seldom listened to it. Days can go by without a musical sound pinging in my ear.
But as I listened to Wagner’s rousing notes, I realized I actually did enjoy music, and also knew why I didn’t listen to it daily. It was a distraction, and I wasn’t a multi-tasker.
The aha was that I thought I was a multi-tasker.
That assumption probably began when I had four children under the age of five to take care of, and continued when I became a working mother with five children at home. In those days I had to be a multi-tasker whether it suited me or not.
But this false assumption continued into my writing life, encouraged by the fact that my head was always full of writing projects battling for dominance: Write a mystery, no wait write that travel article for a magazine and earn some money; No you know how you enjoy fantasy. Wouldn’t it be fun to create your own world; You should enter that short-story contest. No, it’s the travel book I should be working on.
My downfall is that I tried to do them all at once, and nothing was ever finished — because, I wasn’t a multi-tasker.
Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now up to 38,002 words. It might progress a little faster from here on out, since I’m shoving all the other writing projects on my agenda into the clouds for now.
The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.
Bean’s Pat: 5thingstodotoday http://tinyurl.com/8juyt6c A blog for all who want to take a step out of their ruts. And perhaps find their own aha moment. I just subscribed to this blog and suspect it’s going to e one of my favorites. No telling what other aha moments are out there waiting for me to do something different to shake up my brain.
Pat Bean's blog 