I have trouble sitting still. By the time I finish my breakfast, I’ve gotten up from the table at least three times. When I’m trying to sit still and listen, I fidget. I often don’t notice until someone points it out. It doesn’t bother me. Our bodies want to move. Moving helps us think and gives us energy rather than depleting us, like sitting.

Moving is as important to writing as paper and pen, computer and hard-drive. I love this article in The New Yorker on walking and thinking. It makes sense and it’s inspiring.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Perhaps the most profound relationship between walking, thinking, and writing reveals itself at the end of a stroll, back at the desk. There, it becomes apparent that writing and walking are extremely similar feats, equal parts physical and mental. When we choose a path through a city or forest, our brain must survey the surrounding environment, construct a mental map of the world, settle on a way forward, and translate that plan into a series of footsteps. Likewise, writing forces the brain to review its own landscape, plot a course through that mental terrain, and transcribe the resulting trail of thoughts by guiding the hands. Walking organizes the world around us; writing organizes our thoughts.”

Can’t sit around and write a long post today. Gotta get up and go!