Not reading to heighten observation

by Odilia Rivera Santos

It is Monday and nothing says Monday like trying something new. When you do new things, new things happen - I heard someone say this recently and it seemed very zen.
I decided yesterday to limit my reading to only one day per week: Friday. In the Julia Cameron book The Artist's Way, Cameron suggests writers write instead of read. I never read her book because writer how-to books have always been difficult for me to get through, but I think this piece of advice is worthwhile. I picked up a paper today and put it down upon remembering my 2012 resolutions begin today, and I instead discreetly glanced at fellow passengers and let walking meditation fill the void. After being an avid reader since the age of six, I have plenty of material roaming around in my head. In Spanish, a woman who behaves herself -- married, with kids, listening to her husband -- is called hecha y derecha. Today, I will use the term to speak of myself as a writer: soy una escritora hecha y derecha.
It is time to begin submitting my work on the regular to fancy invisible journals and to less fancy visible ones and to explore writing as a full-time, full-throttle, all-consuming adventure.
By not reading, I have cleared three to four hours per day to focus on writing, observing, interacting, and overusing the gerund.