The HEA Cafe

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Ooops.  That’s what happens when my blogging day falls on a Saturday, especially a stunningly gorgeous Saturday in spring.  Thoughts of sitting and staring at a screen completely leave my head.

North Florida has three seasons–a looooong summer, and a delightful spring and autumn.  Between autumn and spring there are some cold days which I won’t dignify by calling them “winter”, but they offer a chance to build a nice fire and drink hot chocolate.

Right now though it’s definitely spring.  I’ve been wiping yellow pollen down from my porch nearly every day.  It finally rained, which was a good thing.  We needed the rain and it cleared much of the pollen away.  Yesterday was a breathtakingly beautiful day, with highs in the upper 70’s F and lows in the upper 50’s. I enjoyed my daily neighborhood walk and tried not to think about what it’s going to feel like in August.

It’s also time for spring cleaning.  In addition to the porch, I’ve been cleaning all over the house, clearing out clutter (including a ton of books to donate to the library book sale), catching up on put-off chores, and thinking about the relationship between spring cleaning and our writing.  In the first (and even second and third) draft, it’s not uncommon for my manuscript to get cluttered and messy.  But  I don’t worry about it.  I figure I’ll write it, and then I’ll clear out the clutter, when my mind is better focused on what stays and what goes.  If I try to do too much cleaning as I go, I get bogged down and end up with perfectly polished chapters 1-3…and nothing else.

So do your spring cleaning, and if you’re writing, remember it’s OK to let the clutter build.  Eventually a fresh breeze will blow through, and you’ll get it all cleared out and neat and shiny again.