Recalibrate

Penny (New Zealand)

[Writing experiment]

Here is an excerpt from my ‘Move Around’ freewriting exercise. The parameters explained we should briefly describe the role of your body in our writing lives… I ended up apologising to my body.

---

A Letter to my Body

I am so sorry my body. I have been ignoring you for so long. I used and used and used until you were tired, way too tired. Finally, sick, so sick. Lying in the hospital bed, still, I attempted to make you write. Your back was sore, your neck was sore. You could not stand straight. You arched your back when walking to the toilet. Still, I went back to the computer, sat down, and kept writing. Exercising you seemed luxurious. I only got up when the dog barked for attention, to ask to play in the garden.

We need to make peace, see, I was so wrong — just then, I talked to you, YOU. In fact, “we” “our” “us” are better terms: Our back, sore! our neck, sore! Now, get up and do some stretching. We should thank the dog ~ otherwise we would be glued to the chair, the whole day—Thank you, Chasey. Good boy ~ you are beautiful. Come, sit, sit ~

See, our dog knows better than us. He squeezed into our writing space, he now climbing on our lap. It’s time for a play in the garden. Also, look, he stopped barking for attention because that DID NOT WORK. He now has to do one step further to gain attention because we simply stared at the computer screen all day. That’s not nice.

How about this: Maybe we can try drinking a lot of liquid, like, water, tea, or coffee. Just like when we were a nurse doing the night duties—that kept us going. Going to the toilet kept us awake. So now, maybe we can use the same strategy: drink a lot of fluid. For sure, that would force us to go to the toilet, so we do some stretching then. Have a think. For now, take Chasey out for a walk. Shall we? Oh~ we need to deliver the newspapers. Newspapers first or walk the dog?