Relocating In Retirement, Writer’s Cramp, and Flashes of Inspiration

There are three themes to this article: relocating in retirement , writer’s cramp, and flashes of inspiration. One can lead to the other.

First, there was the flash. It came as a tiny moment of thought. It lasted only nano-seconds. And yet, when I sat down at the keyboard, I was able to grow this tiny seed of light into an 1100 word article very easily in just a couple of hours.

There I was, just going through my normal and usual getting the day started activities: answer the phone, take my morning medications, shower, get dressed, answer the phone, and trying to decide about what to have for breakfast. I was also thinking about what I wanted to do with my day after breakfast . . . when it hit. That briefest flash of thought.

This day was to be mine. My wife, Marilyn, was going off to her quilting circle’s weekly get-together. The day was mine. It was set aside for me to do with it as I willed. What did I want to work on. I knew that I wanted to write something, and had no clue as to the topic until that flash arrived.

I would write about flashes of thought, the creative moment, the inspiration, the “A-hah! Moment”, a.k.a. the “Eureka!” moment.

This decision was important because it had been a long, dry week without any inspirations. Not a single flash of inspiration to write about …anything.

Problem solved.

The article that resulted, also on this web site, is titled, “Writer’s Cramp and the Future”. Check it out if that sounds interesting to you.

Second, the rest of this article is hopefully more highly targeted specifically at the “writer’s cramp” I had not been enjoying. This is one of many terms for lack of writing activity. It has other names, some of which are less than useful in polite company.

Whole books, movies, and plays have been created around and about this theme by some extremely talented authors. I am quite sure that I’m not in their class, but I do want to examine my own experiences during the “cramp” period in the hope and belief that this may be of some assistance to other writers.

Specifically looking at the “cramp” period is first, then I’ll also look at the inspiration moment, the “cure”, the flash.

I think that eventually a writer simply becomes tired, and runs out of gas. Ours is a lonely profession. We commonly work alone, within our own heads. Writing is hard work. Hard because it is not just the spilling of an endless stream of words onto paper. It is also the “smithing” part of writing. The choices made in the hopes of better communication with an eventual reader. The heavy pounding of the hammer of your intellect upon the iron billet of ideas lying there on the anvil called paper.

Writing takes knowledge and skill. It requires close attention to details. It requires a long, endless series of sometimes difficult decisions. Making decisions causes stress. Stress impinges on nervous energy. Stress is tiring and can even eventually cause physical illness if not relieved. Writing is full of stress.

Sometimes the writer just comes to an impenetrable wall. The ideas dry up. Tiredness becomes so complete that the word pipes and valves are all gummed up with gunk which causes a complete word stoppage. The only known sure cure is rest and relaxation. Re-creation in the best form and meaning of the word.

Looking back, I really don’t think that happened to me. I have not been ill. I think that perhaps I was just distracted. I had spent a long period of intense interest in, concern about, and writing about a long series of issues. I am very concerned about the future of this country. A granddaughter will do that to you.

We’re almost there. To the other themes, I mean. Patience, please. Some weeks before, my wife and I had made a fundamental decision to relocate back to the continental United States from our current residence in the tropical paradise called Hawaii. The clinching item was a mutual desire to be closer to our granddaughter, aged four. We realized with deep regret that we were missing out on too much of her growing up life. We simply want to be at a closer range as her childhood to young adult status evolves.

This was not an easy decision. We are in Hawaii. Five thousand miles, most of which is salt water is a formidable barrier. We are in our present community because we deliberately chose to be here. Here in this particular form of American tropical paradise. We chose it from an array of choices which we carefully studied before making a decision. We love it here. We both have been constantly and heavily invested in our community.

The moving process, the moving decision, forces a new series of activities and expenditures. Over the last couple of months we have been gradually trying to prepare our home for sale. We have been painting, cleaning, pruning, planting on the outside, and remodeling the bathroom. Most importantly, we have been going through and around the house thinning and pruning both inside and out.

We have sorted, discarded, shredded, donated, and sold excess belongings ranging from papers to books, to video tapes, DVD’s, knick-knacks, and furniture. We have already packed and shipped 44 medium sized boxes of “things” to our daughter for storage in distant and dry Arizona.

Now for the swamp thing. No, I don’t think Arizona has swamps, I mean the “writer’s cramp” thing. We began to seriously think about what we want to do about housing when we arrive in Arizona. That has been my very distracting “cusp”. It is kind of like dodging hungry alligators in swamps. If you don’t think so, just call a couple of real estate salespersons. We have important choices to make. Every one is consequential. None are easy. All are costly. All are complicated.

We are not rich and cannot cushion our leaping decisions with lose piles of raw cash. When you make this kind of leap into the unknown, the landing can be very hard and hurtful if you are not careful about your direction, distance, and landing field. Remember the rock in the pile of Fall leaves when you were a child?

Study of these new problems became all consuming. Do we sell? The current housing market (Nov 2006) has slowed to a slow crawl. There is a rich pool of new and occupied homes with which we are forced to compete. Prices have not yet started to come down, but sales are almost non-existent. We know that our present home fits our needs supremely well. Three different rounds of re-modeling in nine years have assured us of that. We are very happy with our home.

A significant discount now in the sales price will only serve to discount the funds we have expended over the years to improve our home to its present condition. A sale under these conditions will also significantly affect the funds available to direct to our housing needs and decisions in Arizona. Perhaps, horror of horrors, we will be forced to become landlords again until the local market improves.

At the same time we have to prepare our thoughts about housing choices on the mainland. Do we want to rent, buy, or build? Right now, we are thinking that at first we will rent for a few months to allow us to get to really “know” the new area, its people and climate. We did that when we arrived here in Hawaii in 1997, and as a method to investigate and learn about a new community, we can recommend it. It works very well.

Renting doesn’t lock you in. You have time to carefully consider purchasing choices, or building choices. House, or land hunting takes a lot of time, and careful note taking. You need time to visit a variety of locales, explore neighborhoods, and look at what exists. Just don’t open too many boxes!

We also want to seriously consider building a new home that fits our current needs as well as does our current home, or better. We have been home builders before, and are aware of the advantages and pitfalls. The first time was thirty years ago. The period since also includes five different times for re-modeling, and working with contractors.

However, we are older and with different concerns, requirements, and expectations than those we brought with us to Hawaii. Maintenance is a growing concern, especially as our ability and interest in performing that kind of work declines. Operational expenses of a home is a growing concern as inflation continues to erode our constant state retirement pension’s purchasing power.

Our way to prepare to be ready to make big decisions is to investigate, research, study and to write down our results. I have been intensely focused on these possibilities. I have been distracted. That’s it! I have been distracted. I have been worried. I have been focused elsewhere. No wonder I’ve been experiencing “writer’s cramp”.

That theme problem may or may not be resolved, but I am going to continue with the theme of relocation in retirement.

But, by golly, I sure have learned a lot about the part of Arizona toward which we are pointed. Even orbital satellite photos! I have also been learning a lot about alternative housing which especially fits the needs of Seniors. Earth-sheltered, geodesic domes, modular, manufactured, fiberglass, and thin-shelled, steel reinforced masonry. Each has advantages and disadvantages to be concerned about. Thank you, Internet!

Arizona is more of a desert, with both higher and lower temperatures than we experience here in mildly tropical Hawaii. When we remodeled our present home, we prepared for the time when we would be less physically able to get around without assistance. That time is now nine years closer. Multi-story homes and stairways are not a part of our housing future.

When we came to Hawaii, we had had it up to our hair follicles with the typical, large, family centered, rural suburban home sitting on two acres plus of green lawn. We downsized to a fair-the-well. We subsequently learned that we went a bit too far. We know now that we want something a bit bigger than what we have now.

Our choices have sorted themselves out as we have discussed the alternatives based on what we have learned to date. We have been looking at houses in Arizona via the Internet, and lat and suitable for construction. We will soon have to discuss the distance questions: How far away in time or miles are we wiling to live from our growing granddaughter? From doctors? From hospitals with an ER? From medical clinics? From pharmacies? Shopping and entertainment? Then we will have to balance all of that against the size of our pocketbook.

At 55 or 56, those choices were easier than they are now. At 66, they are harder and take more careful and deliberate thought. At what age might we lose the ability to drive?

Yes, I have been distracted. Now, there are fewer housing decisions that can be made from a remote distance like in the middle of the Pacific.

There is more mental energy available to be refocused back to writing. A-Hah!

The spark plug is firing again! Inspiration explodes! I just had another idea for a new article! It now consists of three pages of single spaced hand written notes on a 8 by 11 yellow pad. That is what I like! Lots of ideas! Not all seeds grow into mighty trees.

A couple of last thoughts about the creative flashes that lead me to writing. During the housing investigatory period, I experienced several nights when sleep did not come easily. I frequently felt like my head was wrapped in wool, not over heated, just … muffled. Slowed somehow. Not as sharp as I usually experience my interaction with the world around me.

I now think that inadequate restful sleep has a major effect upon the creative spark. Obviously, I also think that concentration on a single subject has a lot to do with inspiration. Interest and desire are also a part of the sweat component of inspiration. Before you can be inspired to write about something, you need to know something about your subject. That means research, reading, study, and experience. Think of it as modern sweat equity.

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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