It is January 2022, and for the last two years, we have been social distancing, wearing a mask, reducing our travel, visiting with select friends and family in hopes of staying safe and healthy. Our new identity card now bears our hyphenated last name of Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson. With all the new covid variants we still feel the need to cocoon ourselves in saran wrap to venture outside of our home. This is not a sci-fi movie that we are binge-watching on Netflix that we can turn off. This is our world today in real-time.

In the past, as writers, we relished slipping away from our busy lives to be imaginative and write. Finding time to put pen to paper used to be a goal we struggled to achieve. Now with the constant mutations of the covid virus and the return to social distancing, we are provided ample alone time-much to our dismay. The time we once coveted is now in abundance. However, the stress of our covid world has made us feel socially distanced from our creativity. We struggle to finish projects we started and our excitement and motivation to give birth to a new literary project are low or nonexistent. If we do come up with a new idea, we type two sentences on a blank page, stare at it for fifteen minutes hoping those words take root and grow into a marvelous narrative that writes itself. When we are unable to cultivate a bud of a story we click save.

Playing limbo at a party can be fun but being in limbo is not. Not to mention, being in limbo can put a terrible strain on our back. We need to get out from under the pressures and uncertainty of the pandemic stick and back in our chair so we can reconnect to our creative source.

Here are some helpful suggestions:

• Get energized with a daily walk in nature. Endorphins not only recharge our bodies, but also lift our spirits.
• If it is safe, we can visit our favorite museum or gallery. Art stimulates the mind, elevates our mood, and gives us an opportunity to reflect, which aids in clearing mental stagnation.
• Keep fresh flowers on our desk. From a Feng Shui perspective, fresh flowers not only increase our chi (energy) but also offer a pleasant and welcoming vision when we sit down to write.
• Participate in a good book club discussion. There is nothing like examining another writer’s work to get our juices flowing.
• Find a virtual writing partner and challenge each other to produce two pages of new material every week to discuss.
• Change our outlook. Instead of viewing seclusion as something we must trudge through like it is a muddy swamp, recognize that being isolated can provide us with the luxury of time to focus and develop our own MFA (My Finest Achievements) Program.

Most importantly, be present. Be in the now. While we do not have control over tomorrow, next week, or next month, we can take this moment, right now, to write something that matters to us. Add two paragraphs to a work in progress, or complete this opening line:

A soft knock at the door …

Get ready. Get set. Write now.