Curses are like wishes.

The days are long now and I wake early, too early.  For some reason, I now decide how I want my day to go in those early hours. Usually I just lie in bed and think about all the things I should do versus all the things I want to do. Some are chores that have to be done. But this morning, I decided to paint my gate and make a wishing  tree out of my jasmine. It was impulsive. I had been thinking about it for a few weeks but I had no plan to do it today. The house needed cleaning, clothes to be washed, laundry to be folded. I am in the middle of reading Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill, and I really love her writing and I wanted to finish at least three more stories in that collection, but out I went into the garden. I watered some plants and then I looked at my gate and thought. I am going to paint it now, paint it green, put stars on it. Hang wishes. I suppose this is because I am writing so much on the novel now. I am in that world. I talk to my characters, I think ab0ut them over a bowl of cereal. I wonder at how anyone will like Stella, my heroine.

"Curses are like wishes."

That's a line from the novel.

It's a very simple line. And yet....

                                                                 

I ended up cleaning the house, too. I even vacuumed. Tomorrow and the next day I am going to write on the novel. Two days I will do nothing but write and plot and work out things in my mind. Live in that imaginary town I have created. Be one of the citizens. Be Stella.