Artwork: The Timekeepers Daughter by Aimee Steward

by Cynthia Wands

Cold medicine makes you feel time differently: there’s a morphed, muffled sense of what time of day it is and what really is imporant. (Primary importance: where are the kleenex tissues and how many cough drops does it take to stop sounding like a barking seal)

I’ve been putting some effort in “Planning Your Year” for my writing projects – deadlines / workshops/ software.  But I’m also feeling a bit of a malaise – (why am I doing this/where is the kleenex/when was the last time I took the Mucinex…).

And then I found this:

The New Play Map

This shows on a daily basis where new plays are being produced. I don’t know why it made me feel so buoyed up to see this – but I am so relieved to know that new plays are actually being done. (And I will admit I wanted to see how many of the new plays were by women…)

But just seeing this map of new work being done, the far flung reach of where new plays are being made, just lifted my spirits.  And that’s an image I’ll carry with me in the coming year.