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Morning was quiet. And then it was not.

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It is 6:30 AM. It used to be that our house was silent this time of day. I’d get up and write while everyone else slept. I’d make coffee. Listen to the house creak. Listen to my pen scratch across the page in the quiet.

Now, our son, my husband, and myself are all up at 6 AM. We bump into each other in the kitchen while our son sleepwalks through toasting his waffles and packing his lunch, while I try to unload the dishwasher and make coffee, while my husband makes his tea and pours his cereal. Instead of silence I hear silverware clanking, toaster beeping, kettle whistling, refrigerator squeaking, our son singing to the kittens, the kittens meowing, and the trample of kitten feet as they race down the hardwood hall and slam into walls.

6 AM is not a quiet time anymore. Today I sat down in our cozy living room chair to write, but with all the activity, I knew I’d not be able to concentrate.

For the first time since me moved into our new house, for the first time since I painted my key lime studio office, I am writing in a room of my own. Until today, the café table in my office served as a horizontal surface for accumulating detritis: cords, keyboards, headphones, ipod, bills that need to be paid.

Today I cleared it.

I sit now at my clean, round table. I hear the hum of the basement dehumidifier, the muted sounds of chairs scraping upstairs, the rattle of the spring in my pen. On my table are a Krispy Kreme candle, a book of matches, a cup of ice water, my prompt box, timer, and composition book, and my wrist as it swiffs across paper and smooth red wood.

For the month of November, I will be participating in NaBloPoMo and plan to publish every day of the month. Usually, I will publish a 10-minute free write, initiated by a prompt from my prompt box. Minimal editing. No story. Just thoughts spilling onto the page. Follow along with the tag #NovemberDaily.

11 thoughts on “Morning was quiet. And then it was not.”

  3. I have been lucky to always have my own space, but for my father it was a dream that only came to fruition later in life. I know from him how hard it had been working or having his own makeshift space for years and years while I was a kid. It was a great feeling for him to get his space once we moved into a big enough home.

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  4. You are off to a good start. It’s hard when routines are disrupted. We all need our quiet time. Writers especially. Hmm, maybe anyone who is going through a creative process.

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  6. Ah, Andrea. Your final paragraph on participating in the daily blogging challenge pushed me to sign up. And all I planned to do was send out a post. One. On Wordle and word clouds. NOW I’ll battle ending a book and Blogging each day. It may be drivel but I’ll see what happens. The last time I took a challenge like that I ended up learning to write with a sense of humor. Maybe I’ll settle on just making sense.

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  8. Having your own space to write is so important…it used to be my quiet desk at some point…but these days I have to make do with a few minutes between work and my work table is where I write…Maybe it’s high time and I should change this. 🙂 would you like to read my blog at aishwaryasivakumar.wordpress.com ? It’s a rather effortless flow of thoughts… 🙂

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  10. Nothing is better that your own space for writing 🙂 I know it from my own experience- but I always add some classical music,mostly piano and cretive feeling is immediately here :))

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