rain and other gray matter

Spring. Remember my optimism just a few days ago? Since then we have had one day where the temperature was over 60*--rain, unrelenting, continues to fall--I bought vegetable starts, asparagus, but the ground is too saturated to dig!

What does this have to do with writing? What we want isn't always what we get...if we wait for the muse to appear we will never move forward. I think she arrives when we've already put in the hard work or are in the process--she's like a sudden breath of sunlight when we're slogging through the mud. She visited yesterday, bringing clarity and beauty to a piece of writing I had been working on for some time. I typed away, amazed as the words and phrases flowed like water...

 Water...I've always loved the rain--it's one of the reasons I live in the Pacific Northwest, and yet there can  be too much of a good thing! Tree roots can't breathe with too much of it--seeds wash away, vegetable roots rot. I haven't taken a walk in days, am overly obsessed with my computer.

 I heard on the news that radioactive water is leaking into the sea in Japan. I think of Masaru Emoto, author of "The Message in Water". (if you haven't read it you might take a peak). He sent out a plea on thursday for a simple prayer: "The water of Fakushima Nuclear Plant, we are sorry to make you suffer. Please forgive us. We thank you, and we love you." Like our unexplained visitations from the muse, our consciousness does affect things in the outer world. Our thoughts and our writing can have a ripple affect for either good or bad...

On the skylight in my office, rain pings and bounces and I feel cozy and held in a sort of cocoon as well as frustrated that I can't take a walk or work in the garden...but eventually I know that the sun will come out, the muse will appear, and I hope that the sea, in time, will transmute the radioactive particles...