“Aber” was the Acholi name given to me by my Ugandan family. The name was chosen unanimously by all the small children and adults. I will never forget all of them screaming and chanting this name suddenly, while my shoes shuffled in the red dirt, and we were all enjoying the shade of the tree that protected our skin and our vulnerable stories during that one week. To reminisce on this moment brings tears of the deepest gratitude. “Aber! Aber! Aber!”

Just an hour ago, this name popped up in my mind, and it gave me an entirely new, but also a many years old, perspective on writing.

Over the last year I have become a professional writer, intentionally. The goal has been to build my resume of shorter published works in order to get the attention of a literary agent or publisher. Before getting paid work accepted, I would write whatever popped into my head, on my blog, in emails, or in journals. Since obtaining professional projects, I have found that writing “for fun” or “for me” has faded away. Take a look at when my last blog post was.

Another factor reducing the amount of writing “for the heck of it” that I am doing is because I have not been traveling. The periods when I wrote the most often in my life, outside of my 50 Day Challenge, has always been when I am on a multi-week to month trip.

So where does Uganda and Aber come in? It comes back to why I originally started writing, and how I came up with focuses for each email. I wrote because I felt that photos and videos could not accurately portray what I was experiencing in Uganda. I came up with a focus for each daily email by paying attention to “the one moment” of the day and contemplating how I would express that experience to my loved ones with words.

What is that one moment? It does not have to be the best or worst moment. Maybe not even the most memorable. I think it comes down to being the most unique moment. The moment that surprised you. That’s what I need to write about.

After working seven not full days at the ski resort that I live at, over the last nine months, my daily life looks entirely different than what I have carved out as a freelance writer and author working hard to get her first book published. I’ve been in a major transition. I chose to work at the resort again. I love being a part of it, and it provides me important benefits that I cannot get as a writer. Also, I have far less hours available to myself each week to work on my craft.

The solution – efficiency and focus.

As much as I want to continue building my resume, because, honestly, I love coming up with, concocting, and then sharing these stories with others, I also have to be sure that the time I do spend on my projects is being spent on what I really want to do. I don’t have time for anything else. I don’t have energy for it.

Then Aber popped in my head, and that tree, and those kids, and that smartphone I punched my first stories into under a mosquito net. And that’s it. That is exactly how I reignite a practice of writing for fun; writing for me. Focus on that one moment of each day, because that moment will happen no matter where you are or who you are with. Focus on the good and the beautiful.

Aber Moments.