By Moonlight

It's not every night a nearly-full moon lines up just right with the skylight in my bathroom to create a glow strong enough to creep into my bedroom. At first I thought I'd left a light on somewhere and I went to investigate. There, like a nearly perfect pearl in the sky, it beamed down into my bathroom and cast a moonlit path that stretched across the floor and then spread like a decorative blanket over a large triangle of my bed. I could have shut the bathroom door to have the perfect darkness I usually need for sleep, but falling asleep by moonlight sounded so romantic.

Trouble is, it was a little too romantic. Literarily speaking.

Immediately my brain went to work advertising all the creative ideas I'd sent on holiday since Thanksgiving. Things I could do for my children. Things I was looking forward to doing with my children--our trip to Florida in February, for one. Books I could be reading. Books I could be writing. And of course: my blogs.

Those of you who know me well already know that sleepless nights are not unusual for me. If I have let the busyness of life take me away from creative pursuits for too long, sooner or later it catches up with me and sleep is beyond reach. Hence the name of this blog, though to be more accurate I should probably dub it: "write by computer-light" since that is typically how it goes down.

When I am caught in a frenzy of creativity, there is little more to do than sneak away from my bed (so as not to disturb my husband who rarely shares this problem) and head for the computer.

Only there can I find relief from the sentences that were forming in my mind moments before. Only then can I hope to find the eventual sleep I will need for the tasks that come by morning light.

So tonight, as the moon now peeks through my office window, it's "write by moonlight" for me.