I grew up four miles from the beach in New Jersey. It was obviously great to be there in the summer, especially as a kid. Some of my fondest memories of the shore, however, are from the off-season. There is nothing more peaceful and relaxing than being on the boardwalk when the air is crisp, or there is snow on the sand. You feel like you're witness to something special that all of the summer tourists miss out on, and it does wonders to clear your head.
Then I left Jersey for college in Maryland, and ended up staying here. I missed the sort of escape that the beach offered me, but I managed to find other locations that worked for my spirit. In the years before I met my husband I was living downtown and going to grad school. When I needed to do some creative work there were certain places I could go to get a little inspiration - Fort McHenry (which is essentially a large park on the Patapsco River), the local coffee shop on Charles Street, or my rooftop deck. I liked places that got me out of my own world (or at least my room), and gave me something else to look at.
Now it's ten years and two kids later, and I'm trying to get my head in a creative place a little more often, but I have no where to go. We don't live in the Rockies, or at the beach, so it's not exactly visually inpiring. Sure, we go on vacation every summer to Hatteras, and it's great, but we eventually have to come home. I can take the girls and go on a drive in the country (we're on the edge of civilization, so it doesn't take long to find horses and cows), or we can go for a walk on one of the many old railroad track trails around here. The problem with both of those scenarios is that my hands are too occupied to be able to write, so while it's still fun and refreshing, it's not meeting my needs.
So, like all busy moms, I'm forced to improvise.
If I can't go to a great location, I need to create one. If I'm running all over the house with the kids, it obviously needs to be portable. I may not be able to visually make a mood (like a beach or a hip coffee shop), but I can use music. I find that if I'm writing, though, I can't listen to anything with words. Sounds stupid, but I just can't focus. So I dug out some old George Winston from my college days, and a Rachmaninov cd, and even a Pavarotti aria (it's not in English, so it doesn't bother me). If I can get the baby to nap, and the 3-year old doing a puzzle or art project, I can actually get something done.
I can't immerse myself in a "mood" for hours like in my single days, but I'm impressing myself with how quickly I can get my brain in the right place. Like all things with kids, you learn to operate in ten-minute increments. I have a friend who figured out how to exercise in ten-minute spots. We all clean, pay bills, cook, do dishes, and shower in ten-minute increments, and now I've learned to write this way as well. It's not ideal, and I feel a little fragmented, but for the next five years, it will just have to do.
Like the saying goes, "wherever you go, there you are", and so it is with my "location." Until we move to Colorado, or the beach, I'm going to have to wing it and make a space of my own whereever I can. I've learned that you have to be creative if you want to be creative.
