“In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” Albert Camus

Though some of us are having a bit of a warm spell, we all know that winter is on the way. Many of us will still be in shelter-at-home mode and we may be facing some challenging days as they get shorter

How can we find our own “invincible summer” within us?

We can get in touch with the source of our inspiration and remember how a project we’re working on propelled us forward when we first began. It. What was that initial spark? How can we fan it into a flame again and warm ourselves in its glow?

We can go back to an early draft of our work — surely it’s waiting somewhere in a folder or on our computer — and see how far we’ve come, how much progress we’ve made in making those initial inklings stronger, truer, deeper.

We can tap into our loyal tribe — those wonderful “charming gardeners,” as Proust put it, who support and encourage us. Just staying in touch with them and keeping them in touch with your excitement about your work will help turn winter into summer in your heart.

We can remember that when we play on the page with joy and abandon, when we surrender ourselves to the flow of inspiration whenever it comes, we defeat time and place and season. There is only the now and the outpouring of words and ideas from that secret, sacred well on creativity.

Turning winter into a summer of the heart — what amazing alchemy! And as writers, we know all about alchemy — we transform words into ideas and images and feelings. We wordsmiths are wizards — finding our “invincible summer” in the midst of winter should be easy for us. Write on!