SPIRITUAL SOAP: Bad Times: An Owner's Manual

Before we were The Black Sheep, we were a newsletter named Spiritual Soap. Please enjoy this article from our history!

I’ve always run from discomfort. I don’t call myself disciplined — I barely ride out the waves of self-doubt that visit me each time I start something new. I look towards the kitchen with procrastination-invented hunger. I feel my very soul lurching towards my phone. I look at a blank page. It looks back. We both sit there in a steely duel, waiting to see who cracks first. Writing is not romantic. Finishing a piece of writing is extremely romantic, but the process to get finished is the opposite of romantic. It’s even kind of ugly sometimes. A lot of slouching and nail biting, pained expressions shifting into confusion and back again. 

Processes are not meant to be romantic; the word process itself is harsh and demanding. Everything that ends romantically requires a process, though. The more idealized the ending, the uglier the process. The ugly process is not somethi…