Friday, November 11, 2011

Veteran's Day

Say thanks today to the active service members that allow the rest of us to live uninterrupted lives. Their bravery, sacrifice, and commitment shelters this country and makes it possible to forget we’re a country at war. Thanks also to the former military men and woman, among them my husband and dad, who formed the line between us and chaos. They may have moved on to other professions, but they played their part in keeping this country great and would be the first to step forward again.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Priorities

Today I went back to work after a bad cold. The kind of cold that makes you miserable. A cold that stops up your head and leaves you with a constant cough at the same time. A cold you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, with the exception of whoever left home and gave it to you in the first place. They can have it back and to spare.

But after some medicine that started with the letter A, and then included close to the entire alphabet in the rest of the name, I’m better. Apparently if your med is not in line for a glossy T.V. commercial than the longer the name the more effective it must be. Five days it predicted until the end of suffering and five days it was.

A whole crew of first graders demanded to know where I was for two days. As soon as they learned I was sick, the interest vanished. Sickness has no glamour. I should have said I went to China, or, better yet, a Justin Bieber concert. That would have won their little hearts and made me a star. Next time.

In all my spare time at home, I didn’t write a thing. Instead I, strangely, spent my time sleeping when I wasn’t moaning. Sorry family. But it did give me time to remember some priorities. There’s the usually family, health, and work, but I was thinking about writing priorities. Just why was I writing?

Was it solely with the goal of being published? To earn gobs of money or to make myself famous? To impress my friends and relations? To entertain? For myself because it’s my passion?

I don’t think there is any one answer that fits the bill. It includes parts of all of them. It would be nice to be published, and miraculously earn gobs of money (not counting on that). I’d love for thousands to read my work. That’s the ambitious side of me. But that’s not the whole story.

I also enjoy hearing from beta readers that like my twiddle of stories. I like when people think a short is funny. If your coffee shoots out of your nose then I’ve done a good job. I also feel happiest when I’m writing. Creating. What could be better? There’s no reason I can’t accomplish all those goals, with luck and no more colds. But I’d better keep my head on straight on not make meeting them the end all of life. I’m keeping in mind what’s important. Making myself happy.