I straighten my desk every day before I leave my office so that when I come in the next morning it’s in order. I like a clean slate to begin my work for the day.

But there was no order on my desk when I returned to work from a week long vacation.

My desk was covered with file folders, reports, notes, invoices and other things to do. My colleagues stacked the work in my inbox and when it was full, they piled the work on my desk.

I enjoyed sorting through the work, crunching the numbers, verifying reports, returning calls and emails…….catching up.

My work as an accountant relies on order and systematic processes.

But my writing does as well. The way I use words and combine them determines how they are read and understood. Do they make sense? Do my words say what I want them to say?

Without order numbers and words are jumbled messes and have no meaning at all.

“Why is it that we understand playing the cello will require work, but we attribute writing to the magic of inspiration?”                      Ann Patchett