Today I was struck by the Olypmic gold medal win of Bode Miller and the perseverance of Joannie Rochette, the Olypmic skater. Differently, they are models for our writing lives.

Bode Miller had considered giving up Olympic skiing at least once that was reported in the news.
"Four years after failing amid lofty expectations at the Karin
Games and a year after practically walking away from the
sport, Miller won the super-combined for his third medal
in as many events at Vancouver." (AP, Andrew Dempf, 2/22)

Joannie Rochette lost her 55 year old mother and major supporter of her Olympic skating yesterday in a sudden heart attack. Joannie is on the ice today. Many say they believe that Joannie is keeping on because she and her mom were so close and the Olympics was a goal they had together. And so Joannie was honoring it. Psychologically, carrying on is a way to keep her mom alive.

Of late I've written a great deal about taking writing breaks. Nor would I back off from the importance of doing that. But, as these two stories indicate, it's necessary as well to not give up. We many never know the true motivation that kept Bode Miller and Joannie Rochette in action. But, whatever it is, it is deeply inside of them. And, our writing runs deeply inside of us writers. It is evidenced if not in our writing, then in our thoughts about writing. I have never taken a writing break where I had not been thinking about writing. And, I have found that to be the case for writers I know and writers I've worked with.

We can stop and question our motivation. It's natural. And, at these times, our well honed perseverance carries us through if not in action, then in thoughts.

When I sat down to write my last post, I knew I was needing to write even though I had no idea what I would write about.

And I learned, without planning it, that what I needed to write about was intuition. Intuition cannot be planned.

Every writer has intuition. The only frustration is whether they are going to trust it. You know the expression, "Trust your gut." Well…. when you do, that's intuition speaking.

Many years ago when I was working on my dissertation, I ignored my intuition. I didn't know any better. The price I paid was that the work took me an extremely long time. As any of you know who have worked on a research project of this sort, it is necessary to incorporate suggestions from your committee. In those days I did not have the perspective to simply take these suggestions and weave them artfully into the project. Push-pull, push-pull, push-pull. Exhaustion by the end.

I can't say that I learned to "go with my gut" because of that experience, but certainly it was part of the growth process.

While still at times I resist (e.g., like working hard to taking this recent writing break), at least I know I'm in the right direction, intuitively.