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Catching Up with the Spiders

How often do you tell a friend, “We should catch up!”?

That ubiquitous phrase “catch up” meaning that time is spent going over the highlights and lowlights of each other’s lives, having the brief overview that makes you feel that the friendship is still growing, evolving, connected.

Do you ever “catch up” with yourself?

How often do you take the time to talk to yourself, go over the highlights and lowlights?

A year ago tomorrow (5/22/18) I wrote an article about… spiders.

The spiders that live in the grass at my favorite camping spot. The place where Ben proposed, the site of my first multi-day backpacking trip, the place where I go to sit, to be, to catch up.

What does this have to do with writing?

Because in today’s “catch up” with an acquaintance/client, I realized how far life had moved since our last talk. How far I’d grown, what had changed. What priorities had fallen away and what had risen to the surface.

When she asked if I was still writing for people, I could confidently say, “I’m selective. I write for the right people.”

Right for me. The ones who, when I take on their voice and become The Ghostwriter, it feels good. Not that it feels NATURAL, but that I enjoy being them, exploring their thoughts, holding their Message as my own.

In the past, I would write for just about anybody. Working long hours, swapping voices the way other women swap shoes, writing, writing, writing. Bursts of huge amounts of motion, effort, words on the page – bookended by weekends on the trail, reconnecting, catching up. The pause between the storms.

Last May, it seemed impossible that I’d get back there. Life had moved too far from who I was – the transition of titles, the addition to the family, the evolution of my business and writing. And through it all… I missed the spiders.

In April, we did go back. I hadn’t been there since that proposal in May of 2017. That fateful moment kicked off a whirlwind of life, living, creation, death, money-woes, career changes, and business triumphs.

The spiders waited for me.

When we went back, in between watching the baby learn to “hike” and play in the river, I made sure to spend some time catching up with those spiders. Because the spiders represent a part of myself that had long laid dormant – that needed to be recollected.

Where have you let the “busy” of life keep you from taking stock of the highs and lows? From counting the woes and numbering the blessings? From finding what has stayed the same and what has changed?

Take a moment.

Breathe.

Settle in.

Catch up.

P.S. It won’t be another year before my next visit with the spiders!

Kim Galloway
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