I just read a book on being more energetic -- actually, I didn't finish the book; I got a third of the way through it and put it down because the suggestions were making me tired. It used hyphenated words like full-engagement and full-throttle and I realized that I'm not interested in speeding across a lake, metaphorically speaking, in a racing boat, the wind whipping through my hair. I'm a writer, and so I sat at my computer and started fiddling with a new idea. In a few minutes I was feeling fully alive, so alive, that I realized I was hungry. I went downstairs and decided to eat something fun, and there were these cupcakes I'd made the day before -- maple pecan cupcakes with maple frosting. I am here to tell you that there are few things more fun than maple pecan cupcakes. I felt the old brain really start to perk. Have you noticed how energizing fun is? The book hadn't mentioned this. And then I looked in my living room. A few days ago we had changed all the furniture around and I loved the new arrangement, so I sat in the chair by the window and felt wholly satisfied and not at all tired. I went back to my desk and played with my idea and completely forgot what time it was until my husband walked through the door. How was my day, he asked. I brushed cupcake crumbs off my shirt and whispered, "Wonderful." I didn't tell him the details of my new story because you can't talk about new ideas right away -- they're made of wisps in the beginning and so easily can blow away. I tucked the new idea into my heart. It will be there tomorrow when I sit down to write. The cupcakes will not. We ate them.
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