Kate Boo--one of my favorite living writers--says that she sometimes needs to remind herself that what gets her fired up isn't being behind a desk but getting out and reporting. She wrote Behind the Beautiful Forevers, one of the greatest non-fiction books I've read.
As the days get shorter and colder the instinct to stay in can be fierce. But every time I venture out and go to the Bronx or Staten Island to talk with people and walk the streets, it feels like such a gift. I learn so much from the Latina immigrants I follow.
I have to remember that when a warm office beckons: get back out on the street.