This past week has been filled with appointments, phone calls, and headaches of both the literal and figurative kind. I’d go into more detail here, but absolutely none of the week’s annoyances were even the slightest bit interesting—they were just irritating.

They also seriously impeded my ability to get off my ass and get some work done.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that for the last half of December I was supremely unproductive. That little “vacation” was welcome at the time, but my “no fucks to give” attitude has carried itself deep into January, and that doesn’t bode well for my plans and projects.

I’d hoped to break out of the rut this past week, but every single time I felt ready to get to work there was a call to make, an email to write, or a meeting to get to. Every ounce of motivation I managed to rouse ended up needing to be spent on one mundane task or another.

Then, of course, there’s the insomnia. I got maybe half an hour of sleep last night, so today’s going to be super fun!

Way back in September (my God, do you even remember September), I wrote a post with some ideas on how to do magic when you don’t really want to, and I’ve had to lean into those ideas myself a lot these past few weeks. Most of the practices I used to do daily have been sitting on the shelf gathering dust, and I haven’t felt even the slightest bit motivated to pick them back up again.

My magical practice right now amounts to little more than tiny, five-minute bursts of sitting and sensing, or doing the magical equivalent of throwing finger guns at passing spirits. “Heeeeeeeeeey! Long time, no chat. Get back at ya soon, booooooooyyyy!”

All of which is to say that I’ve been having a rough one, like tons of other people I know, and I honestly have no idea when I’ll get out of the weeds.

And that’s totally okay.

I’ve written before about how there’s this perception among some people in the magical community that “magic = good vibes only.” And one day I’ll write a long, rambling post about where this idea comes from and why it’s bullshit.

In the meantime, all I’ll say is think of magic a bit like how we think of writing.

Writing is both a skill and an art. It not only requires inspiration, but a whole lot of discipline to sit your ass down in the chair every day and bang out the words you need. But even with the most disciplined routine in the world, there will be times when the words just don’t show up.

Whether it’s for lack of energy, or focus, or time—every writer I’ve ever known has had days, weeks, or even months when the page stays blank and the keys go un-pressed. It sucks, but it’s basically inevitable.

All you can do during these “dry” periods is to get up each day, work on your stuff as best you can (even if it’s just for five minutes), and hope that things are better tomorrow.

It also helps to not beat yourself up about what did or didn’t happen yesterday.