How to deal with a disturbance in the Force

I knew exactly what I wanted to work on this week. I was going to continue rewriting my fantasy novel. I had made some good progress on the worldbuilding and the magic system, and I was finally getting back into a rhythm.Then a letter arrived from the Dutch tax authorities.Our non-profit foundation, Trideo, had been selected for a routine check. Nothing alarming, as far as I can tell. But they need documents. Annual reports. Plans. Financial information. Details about what we’ve been doing and what we’re planning to do.And they need it before the end of the month.There went my carefully planned September.A disturbance in the ForceAs I walked through the woods this week, I called it a disturbance in the Force.You can have your priorities perfectly organized and diligently work through them every day. Then something appears that you didn’t plan for but can’t ignore.I initially tried to keep everything else going alongside it. The novel. My podcast work. Preparations for a possible research trip in October. Fantasyfans. All the other projects already occupying little corners of my brain.That didn’t work particularly well.I stopped taking my daily walks. I didn’t sleep as well. I became agitated. There was a knot in my stomach.The funny thing is that the paperwork itself isn’t particularly frightening. The problem is uncertainty. When something suddenly lands on my desk with lots of different parts and no obvious first step, my brain wants to solve all of it at once.So I eventually did the opposite.For the next two weeks, the paperwork gets priority. The contractual work still gets done. Everything else can wait.Getting lostThere was a certain irony to explaining all this while recording the podcast.I decided to take a path through the woods that I hadn’t walked before.Except it wasn’t really a path.Soon I was climbing over fallen trees, crawling underneath branches and trying to work out whether I had accidentally wandered into someone’s backyard. At one point I found an enormous cobweb and decided that awakening Shelob would not improve my week.Eventually I found a real path again.Then the thunder started.Within minutes, the blue skies disappeared, rain was pouring through my flimsy running jacket and cold water was trickling down my spine.So much for planning.But perhaps that’s why I need these walks especially when life gets busy.For about a week I had skipped them because I thought I didn’t have time. In reality, walking is one of the things that makes everything else sustainable. The same goes for keeping my evenings free, going to bed on time and occasionally doing something creative that doesn’t have to become another project.Even drawing medieval miniatures can become work if I’m not careful. Before long I’m imagining a book, a video series and twelve social media posts about them.Sometimes a drawing should just be a drawing.There will always be more workBy the time I found my familiar walking route again, the storm had passed. The sun even came back.My plans for the next couple of weeks haven’t magically become less complicated. There is still a pile of paperwork waiting for me. There are podcast episodes to produce. I’m going to Elfia this weekend. And somewhere beyond all that, my unfinished novel is patiently waiting for me.But I’ve also made one decision that I’m rather happy about.In October, I want to return to Ireland.I had been considering Scotland, but Ireland makes more sense right now. It gives me a chance to write, revisit some of the places that inspired my stories and gather more material for the books I’m already working on.More importantly, putting the trip on the calendar protects it from all the work that will inevitably try to take its place.Because there will always be more work.There won’t always be another autumn in which I can go to Ireland.P.S. These reflections began during this week’s episode of The Walk. If you’d like to hear the original (and hear me get lost, caught in a thunderstorm and eventually find my way home) you’ll find the audio player at the top of this page. Get full access to Father Roderick at fatherroderick.substack.com/subscribe