Time: Lost in the Weeds & Wilderness December 3, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Word Play, Writing & Writers.comments closed
Wikipedia ~ A Christmas Carol (in Public Domain)
The prodigious and prolific works of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens have endured from their time to ours.
Readers continue to harvest perennials sown in their literary gardens ~ Sense and Sensibility, A Christmas Carol, Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, Emma, David Copperfield, Northanger Abbey, Oliver Twist, Mansfield Park, The Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations . . .
Of course, they had it easy ~ far fewer distractions while writing.
No phone calls to interrupt the train of their thought. No distracting music blaring from stereos or television sets. No planes to catch, cars to maintain, or bicycles to ride. No cyber-space for surfing.
Austen lived in the country. She could slop the hogs, or she could write. She could feed the chickens and gather eggs, or she could write. She could weed the garden, or she could write. She could milk the cows, or she could write.
She chose writing.
Dickens lived in London with a few more distractions, like admiring the large turkey hanging in the poulterer’s window at Christmas tide, but not nearly the number of distractions that assault us each day.
He could dodge offerings from bed pans flung into the gutters of London town, or he could write. He could feed the birds, or he could write. He could wander the shoppes and admire the polluted Thames, or he could write.
He chose writing.
Even today, with all the distractions swirling around, it still comes down to a simple choice ~ we can either waste time or spend it wisely, focused on our priorities.
It’s amazing the things we do . . . to avoid doing amazing things. ♥ ♥ ♥
Related posts: Sidey’s Weekend Theme ~ Long Live The Weeds and The Wilderness Yet (View From The Side) * A Reading Fast (Write Up My Life) * Weeds and Wilderness (Kate Shrewsday) * Loss of Wilderness Means Loss of Self (Lisa Wields Words) * Time Long Past (Mirth & Motivation)
Spirit Lights The Way 