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Blogs by Donelle Knudsen
Finding the Heat 3/6/2011 7:22:56 AM
I take the availability of heat and water for granted. That's why two weeks ago when we entered our vacation home and discovered we had neither heat nor hot water, I felt disoriented, not just inconvenienced.
It seemed a coincidence that the furnace AND water heater would fail simultaneously. But we soon discovered there was a recent outage and it was possible a power surge was the culprit. Or maybe the units simply broke down due to their age. No matter, it was 45 degrees in the house and we had to find professionals quickly.
Even though the wood stove took the chill off the living room, I was grateful when warm air began to circulate the entire house. It took coordination of finding the right technicians and getting them scheduled so they could diagnose and fix the problem.
This incident reminded me of the writing process. Writing a meaningful short story, poem, or a paragraph for my book is often uncomfortable, disconcerting, and inefficient. First comes the desire, not necessarily the inspiration, to write; then comes clarification: what to write; and finally the act of implementing either pen or keyboard, and getting to work. Unlike our furnace and water heater, I usually need a power surge.
The professionals responded, diagnosed, and set to work and did what I try to do: they were efficient and effective. I watched and learned, and thought, "What's my excuse when I avoid sitting down and putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard?"
When my brain is on ice and I'm disoriented, inspiration-less, I must call in my muse, or just sit down and get to work. At the house, we had heat and hot water within a few hours. I wish it would work that well when I want to update my blog or find the first line of a poem.
So the next time I find excuses NOT to write, I'll think of the cold house and the rapid response by expert technicians. I need to generate my own heat by warming up my fingers and hitting the keyboard.
