Yesterday afternoon the sky turned a weird orangish/yellowish color around 5pm. It darkened quickly outside. I had my headphones on but Ana heard thunder and exclaimed, “did you hear that?” It was the weirdest and surrealist moment because right then it was as if the clouds opened up and poured buckets of water. The wind picked up and the rain was flying sideways and more than I had seen in a while. Thunder again. Lightening struck and 10 minutes later the colors changed again and the blue skies returned. It was as if nothing happened again. I could see neighbors in the apartment building across the street all open their windows to take pictures with their phones.

I couldn’t see what they could but I could guess that a brilliant rainbow was hanging for much of Berlin to see. Posts on Facebook from many more people confirmed this to be the case. A double rainbow appeared just after the worst of it.

Posts also from Facebook and Instagram confirmed what I knew would be the case….we all ran to our windows. Ana and I had watched the whole thing while our husky cowered in the corner (he’s kind of a big chicken when it comes to thunderstorms). We watched intently and with awe as the rain pelted down and I was glad I had already taken the pups for their around the block late afternoon pee break. I wasn’t caught in the craziness of the weather. Everyone commented about it to each other. There were texts happening about it.

Today I find myself wishing for a flash of a storm because it was something completely different. I am sitting at Ana’s desk in my Friday writing day wishing for some variance to get the muse going. I have written some today but I feel stale as if the words just aren’t appearing on the page before me. I am working on a book proposal. I have written the proposal pieces but now I have the rest of the most daunting part, the sample of the book that I have supposedly finished. One or two chapters. So far I have part of an Introduction and part of a first chapter. Sure, I have chapter summaries and titles. I have a premise and the idea in theory is awesome. I have a feel for the book I want to write and I know it is coming out of me and yet this is the most daunting part. The actual writing of the book. Publishers I have spoken to have said to not write the whole manuscript before you send the proposal. Most publishers and editors want to co create this thing to put out into the world. So I just need the Intro and complete Chapter 1. I have broken it down to needing 10-15 pages per chapter and of course the Intro can be shorter but here I sit.

Our brains need variety. I have been reading articles about this and in lockdown variety is hard to come by. Sure, we create variety here and there but the variety that happens from life…going to work, traveling around the city, visiting places and seeing things, traveling to other locations…well that variety is much needed and can’t happen so here I sit begging with the muse to write something else, just a few more pieces to the page. And maybe today I am at time’s up for now…which is ok but that’s why you get a blog, dear reader and a wish for another storm because it was variety we all hunger for each moment these days.

How are you doing in the current state of affairs?