Switching Lanes

When I first learned to drive–and I confess, I was already married with children–getting onto a Houston freeway during afternoon drive time terrified me. But I wanted to take an art class downtown, and my husband couldn’t drive me because he needed to stay home, serve the dinner I had already prepared, and put the kids to bed. He advised me to get into the lane I knew would take me where I wanted to go and simply stay there until I reached my exit. Let the other drivers do whatever they needed to do, but stay focused on my destination.

Great advice–not only for driving terrified but for many other terrifying ventures I’ve made since then. Sometimes, though, we need to switch lanes.

When I feel myself approaching temporary burnout on a project, switching lanes completely for a while renews my energy, especially when I switch from “intellectual” to “emotional” pursuits or from “mental” to “physical.” Usually, that means signing off from the computer and any story I might be writing, go to my art studio, select some paints and pick up a brush.

This time, I started the cover painting for a book that’s in my “revise” queue and assessed another painting already in progress. “Swans” has been waiting the finishing touches for several months. “Here Lies a Wicked Man” is scarcely started.

There’s joy in squeezing out red, blue, and yellow watercolors and splashing them on with abandon as I create the under-painting. Then it goes into my “finish this” queue while I switch lanes again and write another story.

Life is good when you have choices.

Under-painting for Here Lies a Wicked Man