2024
has been a somewhat challenging year so far. There have been ups and there have
been downs, some of which have been potentially life threatening but here we
are Mike and I in September still tottering along. The house has been sold,
fingers crossed, the move to Somerset is on the horizon and it is just possible
that from now until Christmas there will be fewer bumps along the road.
Even
if they are, experience has taught me that they will not be the ones I
expected. For if there is one thing I have learned this year it is the impossibility
of gaging what will happen next and following that the stupidity of trying to
pre-empt events.
I
have spent hours of my time engaged in the art of Whatifery. It’s one I’m very
skilled at. Give me any situation and I can riff on the possibilities, mostly
dire, for hours. An ambulance going up the hill towards our house? Mike has had
a fatal accident. Not only that but he has fallen by the front door which will
make access for the ambulance crews impossible. So how will they get in? Will
the police have to be called? The fire service? By the time I get home every
scenario, each one worse than the others, will have been played out and finding
him sitting in front of the TV calmly watching cricket is somewhat of an anti-climax.
And
a total waste of my creative time. Rather than indulging in potential tragedy I
could have been thinking about my latest WIP, or concentrating on my
surroundings, taking notice of what I can see, hear, smell, touch and taste and
so focusing myself on the present rather than churning up my anxiety about
future events that will never come to pass.
At
the moment my concerns are all centred around our house move. In particular the
survey our buyers have commissioned. As far as I know, there is nothing
seriously wrong with our house but if I give in to Whatifery…
PS
I am fully aware that Whatifery is vital for a writer and more on that in
another post maybe.
Comments
Fingers crossed things do go more smoothly from now on and you can breathe a little.