I’ve been thinking a lot about patience lately. It’s partly because we’ve been playing the run-to-the-mailbox game for the last few weeks, waiting for college acceptance letters for my oldest son. (Thankfully, all offers have been made and he’s made his decision. But that’s another post.) Another reason “patience” has been on my mind is because my thirteen year old will be taking the first part of her second degree junior black belt test this Saturday.
This test has been a real lesson in patience - for her and for me. She was prepared to test six months ago but then a broken toe and a sudden switch to a new school pushed testing aside. Abbey was very disappointed. Especially since I went ahead and tested for my second degree test without her. (I know. Bad Mom!) She announced that she was giving up taekwondo altogether, claiming she couldn’t wait any longer and that all her hard work was for nothing.
For months, I talked, threatened, bribed, argued and talked some more. But no matter what I said, I couldn’t convince her that waiting six months for the next testing time to come around again was not a big deal. I told her, “April will come no matter what you do. Which would you regret more: showing up for class and training or not testing?” **
Today, after another day of frustration at the keyboard, I realized I need to start taking my own advice.
Months ago, I started a new project. Though I’m very excited about it, writing has been agonizingly S L O W. Like “Yippee, I wrote a decent paragraph today” slow. I’ve found myself wondering if it’ll ever get it done. It’s tempting to just throw in the towel and decide I’m not waiting any longer for an agent to take me on or an editor to make an offer.
But next week, next month and even next year will come regardless if I’m writing or not. So I need to decide - how do I want to spend my time. I may be plodding (or should that be plotting, ha ha) along but progress is progress.
A journey of a thousand pages starts with a single word and - sometimes - moves one paragraph at a time. And that’s okay.
~Carmella
** I’m under no illusion that my advice changed my daughter’s mind about testing. She’s a teenager after all and therefor I know nothing. :-)
Very well put, Car. Also, yes, we know nothing. Six months is forever, duh. :)
ReplyDeleteYou have inspired me to ask myself where I want to be a month from now: with some pages or no pages. OK, how about a week from now? A day?
It keeps me motivated to think about "some" vs. "none". I do the same thing when I come against the idea that I don't have time for something (e.g. exercise). I think, what about 5 minutes? Everyone can make 5 minutes. Accomplishing something is always better than accomplishing nothing.
ReplyDeleteSo so true. Sometimes I want to have it all right now but often good writing comes from time and pressure (like rocks! LOL, I'm such a teacher).
ReplyDelete