30 minutes in the library.
People are busy; I gather this because whenever I ask them how they are, they often say, “busy.” We live in busy times and there’s no way back from here.
Writing takes time, but what happens when you are so busy that you don’t have inordinate amounts of time to write, or even blog? Should you just throw up your hands and say, “I can’t do this?”
My answer would be a declarative, “no!”
You find time for the things that matter, and for me, words and writing are important, maybe even essential. That means that regardless of how busy I get, I’m finding time to write and read. I believe these two things go together, by the way.
I’m picking 30 minutes as a segment of time that I can write a blog post that’s probably 500 words, readable, and it allows me to do what I decided I wanted to do when I set out to blog 10 years ago–set down thoughts and ideas and share them in a post with whoever happens upon my blog. It also allows me to post 3-4 times each week, which is the minimum that bloggers ought to be updating their content, in my opinion.
Does that mean I won’t write longer pieces; not necessarily, but these will be limited for the next 3 or 4 months given the projects I have before me.
My first post in my “30 Minutes to Write” series finds me sitting in the magazine room at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. I’m here because I had my studded tires swapped out for my all-season tires at Lee’s Tire and Service at Cook’s Corner. This also signifies spring for me.
Lee’s Tire and Co. are so efficient, they had me in and out in 40 minutes, and that included an inspection sticker.
That’s great, except I have some additional errands to run in Brunswick and my stops all open at 10:00 am. Fortunately for me, I have my backpack that includes all the necessary blogging paraphernalia, mainly my Dell Netbook that I carry with me on these excursions.
I love libraries and if you know me, you know that’s not a secret. What’s not to love about quiet, Interweb wi-fi access, and information all around.
Speaking of information, I grabbed a magazine off the shelf called YES! They’re part of the Creative Commons movement. I want to know more about the publication and the movement.
One of the headline articles has the title, “How Cooperatives Are Driving The New Economy.” That’s information I’m very interested in.
So not quite 20 minutes in, I’ve written a shade less than 400 words. What’s cool, I have a topic I want to explore further, relative to cooperatives, and learning a bit more about YES!
The “From The Editor” welcome intrigues me, as Sarah van Gelder writes that “This is an exciting moment for cooperatives. A growing disillusionment with big banks and corporations is sparking interest in economic alternatives, and new opportunities are opening up:” She goes on to indicate what some of them are, like worker-ownership among union steelworkers and communities seeking alternatives to profit-driven corporate health insurance, all done in a cooperative fashion.
I definitely will want to learn more about this.