Hi Friends, 

This is your weekly edition of The Friday Five Hundred, which is a slice of my writerly life packaged in nuggets of Present, Past and Future in five hundred words or less.

Present: I have penned enough first draft words for my memoir to be able to zoom out and  revise. It’s a fascinating out of body experience to read my own words. Some of them are brilliant and most of them don’t make sense. It’s a closet filled with un-necessary items. I’ve purged it out. Now, time to put back only the belongings or scenes that have earned their place in the lens of this memoir. The others I can put away in a repository to come back to later or perhaps just forget about them.

I’m at the stage where I see what a mess the manuscript is. I also don’t want to "ruin" my memoir by changing it around as if it’s a perfect piece of art, which it isn’t. 

Past: This past week, I was pulled by my daughters to make some cupcakes for an after dinner treat. I hesitated because I worried about the clean up efforts, the time it might take up, and the little squabbles that would happen along the way. I agreed but not with excitement. I looked for excuses to abandon the making of the cupcakes. “You guys are speaking too loud. You are being too disruptive. I’m not going to do this.”  

I noticed that I like to escape. If there is something that needs my attention, I will not eat the frog. I’ll go eat…well cupcakes. Yummy delicious cupcakes. I’ll find reasons not to do the task at hand…the one task that will make my life easier and help my future self. Nope, I’ll exert my energy on finding reasons why I shouldn’t be doing the particular task in the present moment. 

"What could be more important than spending some time with my daughters?" I thought to myself and so I decided to follow my kids’ lead. It was the most fun I’ve ever had in a while. The kids brought their experimental mindset and put in new ingredients. When we placed the cupcakes in for baking, they put a timer and decided to have a dance party for the duration of time it took for the cupcakes to bake. They had a fun time waiting and dancing. The cupcakes were done and they helped me load the dishwasher. It was a delicious success. 

Future: I’m inspired to go into my revision with my kids’ mindset. Maybe if I think of it as an experiment rather than a burden, I’ll have fun. If all else fails, I’ll break out into a dance move or two. Revision phase seems messy and unpleasant, but the way through is the only way. I'll eat the frog and the cupcakes, too.

Thank you for reading dear reader. I'll be back on Friday. Until then please take care of yourself. Have a lovely long weekend if you live in America and if not then have a lovely restful weekend nonetheless. 

With lots of love, 

Sana Fayyaz