Mortgage Monday: A Means To Reconnect

There has been an unexpected benefit to moving into our own house that we have enjoyed over the past several months. Since the day the movers unpacked our furniture and belongings at our new address, we have been able to get together with a number of people with whom we have lost contact over the last couple of years. With all that has transpired we, for lack of a better term, closed ranks for a while just trying to get through some of the tougher moments that we have encountered. Since moving we have been able to open up and reconnect with a myriad of people that have been nothing but supportive and understanding of all that has gone on.

Recently, we were able to invite our Rabbi and his wife to our new home for lunch. I personally owe this man a lot for helping me become who I am today most notably in serving as my mentor during my conversion. My wife and I owe them both a great deal for providing us with the support and guidance over the years specifically during a rather interesting Aliyah experience. We were lucky to have them close by when we were living in Israel and were able to meet with them on several occasions to help us with our difficult decision to return.

As I mentioned previously, this has also been the impetus, or at least one of the contributing factors, in motivating us to restart our family newsletter. It is reassuring to know that in future years these annual reports will always be coming from our home… there is no longer the question of from where the newsletter will be sent. And we no longer have to include a section about moving. By the way, after a few unexpected delays, they are finally in the mail!

Most importantly, over the past few months, our home has been a means to reconnect with people. As I have admitted before, I am not the best person at keeping in touch with others. This has proven to be a great way to restart long dormant conversations and a means to discuss updates with friends and find out what they have been up to. Of course, now the goal is to keep myself from reverting back into old habits and putting forth the effort, and finding the time, to have substantive conversations with friends and family that I truly enjoy talking to and with which I continue to have great conversations.  

The Pitch Black Creative Catalyst

It always seems that I am up late at night writing a blog. It’s not that I don’t try to get it done earlier it’s just a very simple fact that the ideas and the ability to construct these short essays don’t come to me until there is a slight heaviness in my eyes. I even have the word document open on my computer throughout the day, ready to go, but I rarely find myself actually typing anything. The same can be said for the blank sheets of paper that wind up being neglected as they are shuffled from one side of my desk to the other during the course of my regular working day.

Sometimes, like now, the night brings a wave of prose that forces me to either write well beyond the 400 word minimum I set at the beginning or I am jumping from one document to another recording two streams of thought nearly simultaneously to be posted on consecutive days. What you are reading now if the second of the two. It is an annoying all or nothing situation that I find myself in every day. It’s almost like my creativity is bipolar… it either shies away or I can’t get it to shut the heck up.

Of course it could be the fact that there is only so much creativity and focus that I can produce at one time and with my job requiring much of that focus and energy it proves difficult to syphon enough of the focus away to even jot down a few sentences or word combinations. And that is just for this blog… my other writing is solely a weekend endeavor and only when that too is not filled with the overflow from the week. Those projects require more than the focus of night, they require the vibrancy of the day.

For everything else… personal correspondences (yes, I still write actually letter on occasion), newsletters, emails, and blogs… the evening is still the time to let he ink flow and the fingers fly like a wounded hummingbird. In the end, there is something about the night that motivates me to write. The catalyst that is midnight, the urgency of the hour, and the desire to bring the day to a close are what I need to keep this blog going. It isn’t every night but it is more often than not an essential part of this less than creative process. And when I stop to think about it, it has pretty much been the same way throughout my writing life. Maybe not always this late but certainly after the sun has gone to sleep and the liveliness of the day is all but a memory.