TIME OUT

I am just begging for someone to ground me, send me to my room and put me in time out. "Time out" as a behavioral intervention for preschoolers is frowned upon and in many cases prohibited. But I believe for adults--mothers, teachers, therapists, and especially artists and writers--it should be implemented frequently and for long periods of time. The formula for "time out" is one minute for each year of the child's life. For me that would be 62 minutes of glorious peace, quiet and creative time. I prescribe it for myself about three times a day so that morning, noon and night I can hide away and get something created. Unfortunately I cannot self medicate so I am doomed to wait patiently until some physician discovers that this is the best treatment and it has only healthy and positive side effects.

In time out I could read quietly, absorbing poems like mist on my skin instead of gobbling them up without a chance to fully appreciate the rhythm and the message. I could set out my paints and brushes, spread out some choice images and create a mixed media piece that could be the backdrop for the poem I would write in that third time out of the day.

Send me to my room, please, and lock the door. Forget about me for a while so the similies and metaphors, plots and resolutions, color and images, can gather inside my head and array themselves in the most beautiful way. Leave me a fragrant mug of herbal tea, perhaps a small bit of dark chocolate, a CD of relaxing music and a scented candle. Set a vase of fresh lavender on my desk beside the notebook and pen. Turn off the ceiling light so the small natural light lamp on my desk creates a halo around me, sheltering me from the outside world, leaving me alone with my muse to explore and discover the next collage, poem or flash fiction. And if you forget about me for a while I won't mind. I won't even tell anyone. I'll be too busy writing.

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 28, 2012 at 9:43 AM

    I like this whole scenario, except that I would add a little bit bigger piece of dark chocolate!

    ReplyDelete

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