The last two weeks have been about the US elections and the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The new cycles sucked me in with updates, op-eds, and pontifications on Twitter. I noticed that the more I concentrated on the updates and breaking news, the fewer ideas bubbled up for me on what to write about every day. It was like a magnetic black hole for creativity. And when I did think about writing, it was all pretty dark stuff.

The other day I made a decision to step into the darkness and see what was waiting for me. As soon as I made that decision, I started writing again.

A good friend once told me that you don’t find your teacher, your teacher finds you. I think it’s the same for creativity and ideas. The ideas and topics I wanted to talk about were waiting for me, I just wasn’t ready to write about them. Now I’m ready. Sometimes you’ve got to look behind the curtain even if what you find scares you.