Hemingway’s council for writers was never to fully empty the creative well but to always leave something untapped. The little one doesn’t expel grows and upon returning to pen and paper the writer finds plenty has amassed while on furlough. Hemingway understood inspiration. Discipline or pressing on is crucial in any process, but in the end we simply cannot make unless we are moved –  a stirring of some measure.

In July I visited Big Sur. It stands as a fortress against fiber optics and demands attention. Everyone we met stood in awe of such an impressive and immersive landscape. We looked leeward to mountains draped in flora, splendid in their own right. We looked windward from vistas affording overwhelming impressions of the largest ocean on the planet – the Pacific.

It took little to no discipline to write in the shadow of such surroundings, a torrent of inspiration. In Big Sur we were driven to the grandest of distractions.

*Sounding – The action or process of measuring depth.