Gotta Have Patience...

I was having a few days where I was having writing sessions that clicked, me thumping my chest in pride and self-admiration at my brilliant writing, only to be sulking-with-head-drooping at receiving two rejections for other unrelated work I had sent out. To then have my disappointment lifted at having work requested by another publisher, to then having a writing session where nothing I wrote made sense. Geez, if I didn’t need Valium before, I sure did at that point.

Emotions ping-ponged from frustration, to elation, and back to frustration, and I didn’t know which end was up.

I get impatient with myself. Impatient on the days where the writing doesn’t click, frustrated at delays in my self-imposed writing goal deadlines. I get impatient in waiting for responses from editors and publishers, only to sometimes receive a nice form-letter rejection, another hiccup in my dreams and therefore another delay in my dreams.

But then right in the middle of my rollercoaster, my frustration with myself at its highest, I got mail. Good mail. Not ‘E’mail, not a letter, but a box. Right on my doorstep. Just to brighten my day.

Publishing Syndicate, publishers of many books including the newest series ‘Not Your Mother’s Book,’ anthologies of funny stories from everyday folks, sent me my author copies. Their newest release, ‘Not Your Mother’s Book...On Travel,’ includes my story, ‘Patience in Princeton, BC,’ a story about how I learned to have patience from my own son’s patience as he fished on a lake during our travels in Princeton, BC.


And as I unpacked the box of my author copies, trying not to jump up and down for fear of hurting something, I flipped open the book to my story (there’s an accompanying picture of two famous folks – be sure to check it out!), and was instantly humbled – by my own words of patience learned from watching my son patiently fish.

Through the days of writing slumps and victories, only to have another writing slump right around the corner, I realized gotta have patience with myself. With continued hard work and determination, I WILL get to fulfilling various writing goals. Things will come together - I gotta have patience.

I gotta have patience in waiting for the mailman, in waiting for editors and publishers to get back to me, in waiting for my laptop to fire up, and again, patience with myself. Things will come together in my writing – I just gotta keep going and have patience.

So if you’re needing a little patience – not just in travelling, but in everything else in life (even in waiting for a prescription for Valium) – maybe pick-up a copy of the book ‘Not Your Mother’s Book...On Travel’ – you just never know where patience will find you.