The Leafy Office

Working From Home Conundrum

It’s great working from home for many reasons. One downside is that it’s easy to get distracted when you aren’t punching a clock. When it’s May, and the weather is gorgeous, I’m sometimes wandering around the yard–not taking up projects like pulling weeds, because, I’m supposed to be working. You might find me checking out the progress of the robin sitting on the nest on the downspout or checking on the health of the plants that are new this year.

Cindy Thomson's garden — My book reading angels give a hint as to what the owner does.

But am I wasting time?

Breathing in Spring

I don’t think I am, unless I give in and start pulling those weeds or painting the backyard furniture. The truth is, I have trouble thinking if I don’t take time to refresh myself. Observation is an important skill for a novelist. I need to breath the air, note the colors in nature, listen to the different bird calls. A tiny part of what I observe might make it into one novel or another. But mostly, I need to clear my head so that I can concentrate better on my story.

Cindy Thomson's window — Gazing out my window

Listening is Underrated

J. Philip Newell wrote a book I love called Listening For the Heartbeat of God. I try to do that. Every day. It’s hard, you know? But listening is the best way to pray, to learn, to write a novel.

Get Outside

I hope you do, at least for a little while. I know it’s difficult for many people who work inside, but even if it’s just walking back and forth to the car, sniff the air, look at the clouds, pay attention, and refresh your soul. (Just my tip for the day!)

Dogwood

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2 thoughts on “The Leafy Office”

Cindy, you’re onto something big here, and its implications extend far beyond novelists concentrating better on their stories.

Here is what Eugene Peterson observes in his book ‘Leap Over A Wall’:
“Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God.
“It’s the time and place that we assign for deliberate attentiveness to God because our self-importance is so insidiously relentless that if we don’t deliberately interrupt ourselves regularly, we have no chance of attending to him at all at other times and in other places.”

So when you “breathe the air, note the colours in nature and listen to the different bird calls”…..
You are, in point of fact, deliberately interrupting yourself and assigning a time and place for deliberate attentiveness to God.
Not all worship takes place in church sanctuaries, as important as those times are.
‘The Leafy Office’ is proof positive of that.

PhiL {‘•_•’}