Writing and Parenting

I really enjoyed this essay (posted on Glimmer Train's website) by Lisa Catherine Harper.

It's about being a writer and being a parent -- two things I struggle with every day.

Here' s a taste:

"Russell Banks has said that literature 'teaches us what it means to be human.' Parenting can do this, too. In the Venn diagram of my life and my art, the two occupations overlap consistently, sometimes productively. Both writing and parenting demand stamina and discipline. Both demand honesty. Both demand that I confront conflict. Both call on me to be generous to myself and others. Both demand a sense of purpose, which on some days is the only thing that keeps me from despair. Both routinely stage my failure. In order to write or parent well I must show up, every day. I must be fully engaged in finding meaning (and sometimes beauty) in what Gertrude Stein calls the eternal present."