THE IMMEDIATE TWIN

For the last two decades I’ve done my best to exorcise my “evil golf

Like telling my ball where to go. 

twin", and with enough success that for the last few years I have felt focused on writing and living life fully. However, this spring she, my evil golf twin, reemerged with a vengeance and new target, my writing brain.

For instance, I sat down to write about an hour ago. After the first paragraph I paused to consider the verb ‘reemerged’ or the new ‘upcycled.’ As I pondered this perplexing problem I noticed that the bird feeder outside my writing window looked empty. Oh my! I can’t write without my birds for light entertainment, so I took the dog with me to the garage where I gathered two cups of birdseed and filled the feeders for the finches, doves, robins, cardinals, and ubb’s (unidentified brown birds).

 After Lucy secured the yard we walked back in through the garage and into the laundry room. Since the buzzer was nearly ready to go off I decided to hang and fold laundry. Normally, that’s to be expected in my life, however, today I not only hung and folded all of the laundry, I also took the time to put everything away today, NOT tomorrow. This twin demands Immediate Satisfaction at the cost of my creative side.

Yesterday, I told my sister that finally I was free to write all day Monday, but that didn’t happen.  Having been healthy and able to play golf, briskly walk a couple of miles, and work in the yard nearly pain free since April, I know that I must remain physically fit with trips to the gym and workouts at home. Sadly, my brain and muscles work on the same clock—we work best in the morning without distractions. It takes energy to push myself to the gym and the same with writing. Long term goals require a focus and do not handle distractions.

Art Gecko view

This morning I stood between two worlds, my ‘Art Gecko Writing Room’ and the front door that leads to the gym. Without guilt I drove to the gym, and came home refreshed and ready to relax a moment then write. 

I also came home hungry. The plan was flawless. I would eat leftover pizza for lunch and then write all afternoon, but my Immediate Twin rocked me when I discovered that I had a 2:00 dental cleaning. Growling at myself I turned in frustration to see what I could do in an hour.  Ha!

My sister, Jonya, has been cleaning and sorting her home for several days. (She’s a teacher going back to work all too soon and she goes into this frantic cleaning sorting mode every late July.) Now some authors and worldly writers would rarely find themselves in this position. They write, even if they have only one hour. 

My task brain looked around and found a chore for immediate satisfaction, and decided that I could take some summer golf clothes to GOODWILL. I drug bag of clothes to the hallway and let Jack know that the assault on the clothes closet had begun. Suddenly, he stood up from his TV chair and said,” I’ve been putting this off long enough!” Forth minutes later we stuffed the back of my car with five trash bags filled with clothes. Really!

I made it to the dentist and onto Goodwill, then came home prepared to write.  Of course, I only wrote 10 minutes before being distracted. Now my Immediate Twin is grinning over my shoulder at all of the things I did today, and saying,“aren’t I proud?”

This all comes with one more problem. I am no longer forty years old and writing at nights to finish my first book with Dr. Mildred Laughlin. In a flash back I recalled teaching all day, being with family all evening, and writing alone in the kitchen until midnight. Then I turned around and did it again, day after day,  until our first book was finished in less than a year.  Not so, now. Anybody who says that “Seventy is the New Forty” is not seventy.   7 Reasons Why Seventy is the new Forty

 The truth is that no one mentions how tired a seventy year old is at night. I can no longer work productively after dinner, sometimes not even after 4:00.  Tomorrow I will play golf, relax with a book or close my eyes for a while, then go to Tai Chi. I tell my twin that those physical activities must come first.

My plan for Wednesday and Thursday is to be Wonder Woman, cross my arms and create a shield to keep my Immediate Twin away, so I may finish the blog I began in May on empowerment, or not. 

Just the same: This Life is Pretty Darn Good and Funny. 

My twin and I agree that this place is good for the soul.