My Train of Thought Jumped the Tracks

Over a week ago I asked myself how I could de-funkify (I suppose that’s not a word, but I like it).  It seems I have not yet found the answer, as I sit here on Non-Sequitur Thursday with not a post in sight nor many thoughts in my head.  Another question I have asked before:  What’s a blogger to do?

 

I did not go running (what a surprise).  I took a short walk with my schnoodle Tabby, but nothing blogworthy.  I had thought to fix something interesting for supper and do a cooking post, but felt in too much of a funk to do so.  I finally forced myself to make a tossed salad.  The therapeutic benefits of chopping vegetables are not to be denied.  Unfortunately, today they only lasted as long as the vegetables did.

 

I managed to maintain enough oomph to make some Italian salad dressing (the kind in the envelope where you add oil and vinegar).  Then I made another envelope’s worth and put some stew beef in it to marinade for crock pot purposes tomorrow.  So apparently my funk is not completely incapacitating.

 

Finish That Novel May is progressing.  Not progressing nicely, but I am putting words on paper.  I’ve written a few more scenes.  Actually, they kind of flow one into the other, so it’s more like one long scene.  I was just getting to the exciting part when my break ended.  I hurriedly wrote two more sentences then went back to work.  My boss was near my work area but did not say anything to me.  It’s kind of too bad, because I was all set to say, “I was just getting to the poison!”

 

Oh dear, have I given away a major plot point?  I always say too much!   Oh, OK, not really.  I’m just being dramatic again.  In fact, I think I have said enough for this to count as a blog post.  Perhaps my funk will clear of its own accord in time for Lame Post Friday.

 

How to De-Funkify?

Yeah, I know defunkify is not a word (hyphenated or otherwise).  Is that a problem?

 

Full disclosure: this is my third attempt at writing this post.  I am a little embarrassed.  Usually when I can’t write at least I can write about not being able to write (the irony is not lost on me).  But this funk seems to be reaching sizable proportions.  However, I continue to attempt to deal with it, one way or another.  These are my thoughts on how one might deal with such a thing.

 

In general, one has two options when dealing with a funk:  surrender to it or fight it.  One’s first impulse is often to fight it.  As the poet said, Do not go gently into that good night!  (Was it Dylan Thomas?  Probably ought to look that up before I publish this.)  Sometimes what you need to do is power on out of that funk.  Just sit your butt down and write (or  get off your butt and run, clean the house, whatever it is your funk is preventing you from doing)!

 

Surrendering sounds like a terrible option. One of my favorite movies Galaxy Quest taught me, “Never give up! Never surrender!” Well, let’s not call it surrender (a’ 70s song about “Sweet Surrender” just started playing in my head).  Call it Relax Into It.  Just sink down into the funk and give your brain a break.  Take a deep breath and enjoy the view.  Relax.

 

Sometimes when you do this, you emerge on the other side of the funk.  Sometimes the funk is your brain and body’s way of telling you that you need a rest.  And sometimes not.  Sometimes the above mentioned power through it is the way to go.

 

As I wrote the preceding, it occurred to me that perhaps there is a third option of gently trying different things to ease your way out of the funk.  I alluded to this method in yesterday’s post, when I felt marginally better after a nice walk with my husband and dog.  A blogger I often read, Return of the Modern Philosopher wrote about a trip to the library which helped his funk considerably.  He took a hard run the next day which also seemed to help.

 

Hmmm…. This may land me in the middle of some half-baked philosophy more suitable for Lame Post Friday.  It seems to me a walk and a trip to the library are gentle ways to ease out of a funk while a hard run is more on the power your way out method.  Then again, running is not writing, so really it would only be powering your way out if your funk was preventing you from running (my funks do that sometimes, too).

 

Now I have three things to look up before I publish this: the poet quoted earlier and the links to Return of the Modern Philosopher.  The question is: is it easier to save this post AGAIN and do that, or to save this post (AGAIN) and write about the run I took this afternoon.  Less writing to pause and look things up, but I hate to waste a good run.  Hmmmm…..

 

OK, it was Dylan Thomas, and I put in the appropriate links.  Now I wonder if the title is right… Oh hell, I’m hitting publish.

 

 

 

Bogged Down in the Blog

Still can’t do it.  Yesterday I started writing a post about getting out of the funk I was in.  I got all bogged down and ended up writing some silliness suitable for Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  Today I tried to edit what I had written, feeling it would make a dandy Middle-aged Musings Monday.  Got bogged down a again.

 

What, I ask you, is a blogger to do?  (This may or may not be a rhetorical question; reader’s choice.)

 

I did take a lovely walk with my nice husband, Steven, and our beloved schnoodle, Tabby.  I could write a Pedestrian Post and have done with it.  It was an enjoyable walk.  The temperatures have warmed up.  I was fine in a regular sweatshirt, although I did put the hood up when my ears got cold.  We saw some daffodils, a few crocuses and some little purple flowers which I could not identify (must ask my Mom; she knows all that stuff).

 

Tabby, by the way, seems to be recovering nicely from her Lyme Disease.  She ran around barking when she knew a walk was imminent.  She is not completely herself yet.  When I got her a treat after the walk, she did not jump up on her hind legs to get it but waited for me to bring it down to her level.   However, she is definitely on the mend, for which Steven and I are quite grateful.

 

As for me, the walk did not exactly cure my funk, but I think it helped.  Fresh air, good company, exercise, what’s not to like?  Could it be that my funk, like Tabby’s Lyme Disease, is not something  I can just snap out of?  Perhaps I could gradually emerge from it, feeling a little better each day, till I am busily writing, completing tasks as I hope to.

 

In any case, this is my Middle-aged Musings Monday post.   Ooh, I just remembered something.  A few weeks ago I changed it to Monday Mental Meanderings.  Did I mention I am in a funk?