Thoughts

The morning began with a milky sky, warmer than it’s been for months. Temporary spring. Snow is predicted for tomorrow. I’m at my desk, despite the pull from outside. I’m writing. I’ve sifted through notes written on odd sized scratch paper I keep in my essay file, looking for something to write for my blog. It’s been an eye-opening activity given the previous few days. I have found what I needed for not only my writing but for advice I’ve been asked for.

Thoughts: Be prepared to make bad mistakes. In order to learn, you must make the mistakes.

I’ve been helping my daughter-in-law. A lot of frustrations, advice, opinions later and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a hundred ways of doing things. No real right or wrong way. There is only the way we find that works for us best. I think this applies very much to writing advice also. I’ve seen this with gardening advice, too.

It is the process of weeding through all the advice to find to our own best way that is painful, frustrating, discouraging. Discouragement is the thing that can derail you. Fight it at all cost. (A TiGi saying: Discouragement is a sneak snake.)

We learn more from mistakes than we ever do from successes. Mistakes are painful, set things back. That’s all right. Embrace them anyway. Mistakes are rarely life-threatening and always there are things to learn from them. Begin again. Correct mistakes. The end result is worth it.

Thoughts: Each road to success takes its own direction.

I’ve come to think life’s derails happen to slap us to the side of the face and redirect us, so we can figure out exactly what’s important to us. Success, reaching for our dreams is not a straight line. That’s a good thing. And sometimes we find a different dream, a better dream.

The road for my writing has been bumpy. I’ve been stuck, veered wildly off course, hit potholes, but I keep writing. That’s what really matters. I keep writing. I keep trying. Baby steps and perseverance is the thing I can count on. The only thing I have control of.

Crocuses bloom every spring, too, despite the winter.