Nothing divides one so much as thought.

Oh yes, R.H. Blyth, you have me there, haiku writer, dear departed devotee of Japanese culture.

History of Haiku Volume 1

I leave my heart

to the sasanqua flower

on the day of this journey

Blyth's death poem, left behind when he finally succumbed to a brain tumour in 1964 

 Yesterday, I couldn't concentrate at all. I had so much work to do and a brain like a butterfly on speed.

Rather in the spirit of writing a blog about my poor time-management when I was battling against the clock with work deadlines, I spent time being distracted by looking for a program that might stop me being distracted!

In a typical human paradox I had been feeling I hadn't got the time to look at ways of saving time.

HOWEVER...success! Success in the form of Zen Writer - a free download from a company called Beenokle. (There's a donate button and I will be contributing, it's that good.)

Zen Writer fills your screen - I mean your ENTIRE screen - with a soothing picture...

...no icons, no intrusive menus, no toolbars, no little thingies popping up to alert you to a new message or e-mail. Just your writing when you produce it. It comes with the option of calming New Age music on a loop.

It DID make a difference. I wrote a long article on zonal nursing (don't ask!) almost in one go and I didn't end up with a crashing headache either.

I know I'm fickle. I know I seize on new ideas then after a while they fizzle out of existence.

If I let this happen with Zen Writer - I'm more of an idiot than I thought.

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.

Well, thank you Walt Whitman, but I bet you had a smart pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. (Other sunglasses available and not nearly as expensive)

There they are, the very ones - minus the lenses - but it WAS the nineteenth century.

The trouble with me is that if I keep my face toward the sunshine, I can't bear the brightness and screw up my eyes and squint most horribly.

It's not the most attractive look.

Still, I know what he means. Good old metaphor.

Today, shadows are definitely behind me and they'd better jolly well stay there.

Or else.