A Birdie to the Rescue

A teeny tiny birdie sat by my window pane this morning and left me a beautiful message. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what it was that the birdie said. I was at my desk, struggling to tackle a particularly nagging problem, with regards to a piece of writing for some time, and this cute little birdie took one peek at my writing table, through the wire mesh and declared, rather wisely—

“Did you know, not every creative idea needs to be beaten, pummelled and thrashed into existence?” I looked up, rather startled. A faint smile crossed my lips.

“Do you mind-read, little birdie?” I asked. Obviously, it did.

Now, let me give you the backstory. I had been floundering into a particularly unpredictable process of crafting strings of words, every morning since the past couple of weeks, and these were all landing straight into my Morning Pages journal, with the hope that they would encourage me to come up with more creative insights. The idea of picking up a rather tempting writing project (still under wraps!) had hit me a few weeks back, but thanks to a series of pressing family commitments, they had not seen the light of the day. As one might expect, this morning, I decided that I didn’t wish to waste any more time and promptly got down to my desk, ready to type out my opening lines, which were crystal clear in my head. I was thrilled and obviously, ready to start. And then, just as I sat by my desk and started to type on my laptop, the words disappeared. Not just the words. The entire opening sentence just vanished into thin air. The blank screen mocked me. The keyboard smiled wryly. I had lost my lines.

It was at this point, that the birdie had landed on my window.

“If that’s what you’re doing, your idea will fold its’ paws, turn on its back and disappear faster than you can spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R!”

“So, what should I do? I’ve lost my words. It’s there in my head, but it’s stuck. How do I bring it back? Tell me, Oh wise one!”, I pleaded. Sensing my desperation, the birdie thundered—

“Go, replenish your energy!”

“Why do you sit hunched up indoors, when you have a beautiful, sunny day outside?” Get moving. Replenish. Go for a walk. Meditate. How about clearing that drawer that you’ve been postponing indefinitely? If I were you, I’d do anything but sit on that chair and mope about losing my idea.”

I was guilty, as charged. Of course, my feathery friend was spot on.

I had to get away from my desk. Do something different. Get moving. Go for a walk. Sensing the many options, my eyes lit up. Little Birdie was right.

I did go for a walk. And I forgot all about my writing project for the rest of the day, until the evening, when I returned to it, energised, refreshed and bursting with ideas.

Come to think of it, some days all we need to do is to embrace our limitations, to find our way forward. And by the way, the little Birdie also made me realise that there is nothing called a Writers Block. 🙂

 

 

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Written as part of our #SoulfulSunday freewriting exercise—a concept ideated by Vinitha, Shilpa and yours truly.