My cat Betsy has water bowls positioned all around the house so she doesn't have to go far, or exert herself too much, to get a drink on these hot summer days. She's going on 19 now so I try to make things easy for her.
In spite of the convenience, Betsy likes drinking from the bird bath on the front lawn.
It's a real stretch for her. She has to stand on her tip-toes, battling her arthritis, to get a drink.
Writing is a bit like that.
It's easy to go round and take from the usual sources, harder to make a stretch and go for something new, different, delicious, exciting - something that will make your arthritic creative joints hurt but the results will be worth it.
What are your writing plans for 2019? Do you think you would stretch your writing legs and try something new and different?
This year will you write in a new genre that challenges you? Travel writing? Crime? Romance?
Perhaps you will commit to writing that memoir for the children, or think about putting together a collection of poems, insights into the delights of summer at the beach or a small cabin by the lake...
Whatever it may be, think about stretching your legs a bit. Challenge yourself. Don't go for the water bowls within easy reach.
Stand on your tiptoes, put your hands up on that birdbath and see what the view is like from up there.