by Nancy Casey
When we face a difficult task or some kind of challenge, the activities involved don’t often escape our attention. It’s the easy things that often slip by without notice. Today in your writing, focus on what’s easy.
It’s pretty easy to set up your page: draw a line across the top where your title will go. You can also draw a box or blob that you’ll use for illustration. As you do this, think over all the things that are easy for you. So easy perhaps that you hardly even pay attention to them.
First off, there are the skills that you have. Maybe you have rebuilt dozens of computers and you could rebuild another one with your eyes closed. Perhaps you are great at frying eggs. Are you a fast reader? A good athlete? Can you make dogs wag their tails? Are you able to type really fast on a phone with your thumbs?
Think about your daily routine. Is it easy for you to leap out of bed, or are you good at sleeping in? Is it easy for you to spend time on social media? To connect with certain friends? Are you good at talking, listening, or giving people the benefit of the doubt?
What’s easy for you to forget? What’s easy to remember?
Some things are easy for us, even though we wish that they weren’t. Maybe it’s easy for you to lie awake in bed at night trying to change the past. Perhaps you would have no difficulty eating a whole bag of chips, or marshmallows. Would you find it easy to skip school or work? Is it easy for you to lose your temper?
A lot of people dread and procrastinate various tasks, only to discover once they do them that they were quite easy after all. Does that ever happen to you?
Even though the difficult things can take up much of our attention, life is peppered with easy things, too. Begin your writing today by describing one thing that is, or has been, easy for you. Tell what it is, and write a little something about it.
You could fill your whole page by telling the story of that one thing—why it’s easy, how to do it, what it’s like, how often you do it, and so forth. Or, after you have written everything you have to say about one easy thing, you’ll still have room on the page to write about another easy thing. And perhaps another, and another. Maybe your writing will be more like a list.
If you can’t decide what to write, begin by scribbling or drawing. That can help your mind relax so you can think more clearly. When an idea about something easy pops into your mind, write it down and see where it takes you. Don’t be too fussy about how you start. One idea usually leads to another one.
When you feel like you’ve written enough, stop. If there’s still room on the page, fill it with drawing or decoration.
When the page is full, look it over carefully and make small changes if you like. When a title idea floats to the surface of your mind, write it at the top of the page.
Write the date on the page too, along with a signature or your initials.
Here is an example of what someone could write.
You can share your work by posting it as a comment below. You can type it in, or take a photo of it and upload the image.
Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. If you would like some help with your writing, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center. In-person Write-for You classes have been suspended for now, but when Covid recedes, they will return.
Latah Recovery Community Center, Inc. 