Hitting rapids.

Sometimes the words flow cleanly, sometimes they just seem to hit rapids, getting all churned up and tossed around.

It can be hard, sometimes, not to just stop when that happens.  I know that I'll have to come back later and clean it up, remove the rocks under the water.  Especially after I've had a fertile period, the temptation is to wait for it to all clear up.

But I don't believe that I can have one without the other.  It is all part of the same river.  If I close the channels to avoid the rapids, well, the flow is cut off altogether.

I have to just stick it out.  Pick my way through.  Hope I can survive without capsizing.

Because otherwise, I just can't make any further progress.

Thing is, when I come back later and work on it, there is probably very little qualitative difference.  Most people probably can't tell the difference between the passages that come easy and the ones that come hard.  I'm traveling the same distance, after all.

So while I'd love for it all to be smooth and easy, it just doesn't happen that way for long.  It becomes hard work, and I just have to keep trying.

This blog is an example. Sometimes as I'm writing it I feel clunky and awkward and not very clear.  Sometimes I feel free and open and the words just right.

Either way, I go ahead and push "Publish." 

It's the flow that counts, not the perfection.  The more words flow, the easier it gets.