Evening. It’s 8:05 p.m.

I am enjoying a good run with my writing these last few days, where I’ve turned off the self-analysis and focused more intently on all kinds of writing — fiction, nonfiction, how-to, spiritual, and just plain daybook.

In these remaining days I have on this 40-day journey, I am still realizing a few things; some of them are surprising me in their simplicity.

(This is sounding a lot like self-analysis, even though I’ve turned it off. Hmmm…Is it possible to self-analyze your stretch of existence without periods of self-analysis?)

Anyway, I think I was just getting a little too deep about what kind of writing I wanted to do. These last few days, I’ve just worried about writing. Period.

For me, every single distraction is not based in the present. It is a part of my past or a concern about what will (or will not) be. When I focus only on the present, I do not allow such distractions to derail me.

I chuckled a little to myself earlier today when I heard an interview with Tiger Woods. He was asked in one of his two weekend interviews how all of this happened. He said, very simply, that he had drifted from his buddhist beliefs, his core principles. In other words, he left the present and pursued his desires.

We know the rest of the story. But I was happy to hear that he stressed the importance of staying close to the center. If I want to remain balanced as a writer, I need not over-analyze what I am writing or when I am writing it; I just need to remain close to my spiritual core and stay centered in the present.

On that note, I return to my writing. I’ve got Cold Rock next to me, and I can’t wait to jump back in.