Nourishment

Unlike me, my husband grew up in the Deep South. Florida might technically be the southernmost state, but it’s totally a melting pot of cultures (one of the reasons I love it so much). He grew up hunting and growing his own food. Now, I grew up in a household that hunted (not me personally), but we never planted or grew our own food so when he mentioned he wanted to grow a garden in our backyard, I was a bit taken aback. When I got home from work yesterday, he showed me what he’d planted, explained everything he’d done, and further explained how much nourishment and care these plants would need if they were going to flourish. When he originally mentioned his idea, I thought all we’d have to do was toss some seeds into the dirt then turn on the sprinkler once in a while and poof! beautiful stuff would sprout up. Apparently there’s a lot more to it than that. Prepare the soil, dig up the roots, make sure the tomatoes had plenty of compost (huh?), ensure they get the right amount of sunlight, and so on.


This got me thinking about the kind of nourishment writers need. Writing is a very solitary thing. No one can make you get your ass in the chair and type except for you. Still, nourishment in the form of good critique partners, uplifting local and online writing groups, and healthy relationships in your everyday life are so important. Toxic relationships can worm their way into various parts of your life and bring you down without you ever having realized it. You know the people I’m talking about. You call them with good news and they have a mile long list of the bad things going on in their life. It’s one thing to vent to your friends, but some people just never have a nice or kind word to say. The kind of people who can never be truly happy for you, probably because they’re not content with themselves. Luckily a few years ago I learned to cut people like that out of my life. Forget about phasing them out, I just cut the cord. And it’s the best choice I ever made. What do you do to keep your inner self nourished? For me, a simple pedicure can make even the worst day turn around.