Alan Gutierrez

In my new world, the one that I cling to desperately, where every morning I write, the writing begins to feel like physical exercise. I push myself on a topic until my mind starts to turn to jelly. I feel an emotional exhaustion set in. Then I push myself futher. At that point the writing drops off, becomes rambling.

Right now, I’m switching topics. I’m wondering if my mind will not be so gelatinous as the new topic sets in. Indeed, as I begin to think about this new topic, my mind sharpens.

On that last topic, did I push myself to the point where my mind needs to take the topic away from me, back into it’s recesses? Is it now that the process begins, by which the answers will later surface, as they do?

I carry a voice recorder now. Answers come to me when I’m away. When out walking in New Orleans. After I murmur into the device, a decision is taken. My chest rises and and I can feel my lungs fill with air.

I am cultivating the mechanics of creativity. Allowing nature to take it’s course. I am learning to live a life of delayed gratification. The trick is to make sure you are prepared to revel in the gratification when it arrives.