One of my all-time favorite tunes is “In the Mood” made popular during the 1940s by the Glenn Miller band. Perhaps, because I do my best work when I’m in the mood.
My mother pointed that out to me while I was still a teenager. When I was going to beauty school after high school graduation, she took advantage of a chance to get a return of some of her investment in the tuition money. Every three months, she asked me to give her a permanent but she always couched her request with the phrase, “If you’re in the mood?” Hard to tell what she would have looked like if I wasn’t in the mood.
According to the American Psychological Association, moods are a little different from emotions. That organization defines mood as “a disposition to respond emotionally in a particular way that may last for hours, days, or even weeks, perhaps at a low level without the person knowing what prompted the state.”
By the time I became a mother with three little kids and a husband, I could not do things just when I was in the mood. Every day brought a stack of duties that had to be carried out.
When I became a journalist, one of the first things I heard about at a writers’ conference was writer’s block, finding yourself staring at a blank page for long periods of time trying to write but unable to find the right words. The day I visited the Rockford Morning Star newsroom, I learned first hand that writing went on no matter the surrounding conditions. The best way to accomplish it was “to put the seat of the pants on the seat of the chair.” The syntax might not be brilliant but the gist of the story would be completed.
Since I’ve been an empty-nester with a retired husband and my writing doesn’t have to be completed before a fast-approaching deadline, I have lapsed into doing some things when the mood strikes. Lately, I haven’t been sick but I haven’t been feeling up to par, either, which means I’m not in the mood to do anything but read a book.. One of the jobs I must accomplish daily is prepare our meals. I have found even when I double-check a recipe, I can still overlook the same ingredient twice. Ken usually notices something doesn’t taste quite right. I can identify what I did wrong.
Do you adhere to a schedule or do you tend to do things when the mood strikes?