Bernadette Benda

So besides being slowly killed by Mother Nature (I mean “allergies”), I’ve been really missing one thing in particular (well a couple more things but whatever).

D A Y D R E A M I N G

Daydreaming in the car going to work. In the car back to work. Standing still for 20 min in Swan Lake (ok it wasn’t 20 min but it FELT like it). At the gym on the elliptical. Listening to podcasts at the gym (I’m still working out, but it’s not the same mood. There’s just something about doing bar squats while listening to a podcast that’s different from working out on my back porch). Daydreaming on the drive home from the gym.

Being alone in the house and daydreaming while cooking chili.

I know things are opening back up in my state (so theoretically I could do things) but it’s not like COVID-19 just decided to pack up a suitcase and leave. (I drove to work (not totally back to dancing but I had to record a class) (I made myself SO SORE) last Saturday and it was CA-RAZY. Everyone and their grandma and her pet poodle were out and driving like idiots and like…the pandemic is still here? Yeah, the stores are open but…)

But back to daydreaming.

So I’ve had to find ways to daydream. I walk. I walk in my neighborhood like a wolf in an exhibit tracing the same path over and over and over again. (Except when my allergies are bad. Then I don’t walk. I nap.)

It’s just trying to find that S P A C E  in order daydream. The fact that I’m a high introvert doesn’t help since like one other person can be sitting in the room and I’ll be like, “um, excuse me but your brainwaves are interrupting mine I can’t hear anything anymore.”

But what the heck does this have to do with writing except me complaining? (DON’T GRUMBLE said Saint….Benedict?? Augustine??? Aquinas???)

Writers need to daydream. It’s where stories are born, fermented, created, fueled, whatever.

Our minds need to wander. We need to imagine things and contemplate things. I come up with my best things while in the shower, listening to music, etc. Magical things can happen when you’re actually sitting down and writing, but a lot of times it just doesn’t happen there.

We  have to get inspired, we have to play around with stories and ideas and characters in our head before we put them to the page.

It’s one of the way we fuel our creativity (at least how I fuel it).

It’s important.

Don’t forget to do it.

But maybe don’t let your mind wander as much as this blog like WHAT EVEN. The other day I put ice cream in the fridge so you can see where my brain is.