All Ears

My friend H and I went for a run last night. Normally we meet at Starbuck's to write it up. But H recently moved to my side of town and we decided to add running to our list of buddy activities. On our run, we didn't talk about writing much. When you're gagging on air and regretting the sandwich-and-chips-combo you downed ten minutes ago, you can't talk about much of anything.

A few months ago, the silence would have killed me. Sanguine that I am, I usually feel compelled to fill in blank spaces. How was your day? What's new with your life? What's your favorite color? Any question or comment will work. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, filling silence, but I'm discovering that thinking time is not wasted time (as Madeleine L'Engle discusses in her book Walking on Water). Just because H and I didn't talk, our time together was no less valuable.

Writers need thinking time. Apart from reading or writing time. Time where we don't fill in the blank spaces, but instead, we revel in them. That's where stories live, I think. So, starting today, I want to be more deliberate about calming down enough to listen. Hopefully it won't take a lack of oxygen induced by running to keep my mouth shut.

What do you think? How imperative is thinking time to the writing life or life in general?