Yesterday, the daytime temperature dipped below 10 degrees for the first time this season in my area, and yesterday I dug my winter coat out of the closet for the first time. I was fighting it. I wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving. My fall coat is relatively warm, but this was a little too much. This was also the morning where my bus pass was mixed in with the mail -- rather than in my purse or coat pocket, and I missed my regular bus, and I had to walk about a mile to catch my "plan B" bus.
Luckily, I made it -- it's an hour wait if I don't. Just as fortunately, I had remembered to charge my little mp3 player and I had the chance to tune out the world during my commute, and I still had enough charge to listen a fair amount while I worked. We had a department meeting and I got a bit of recognition and a few tokens along with that. And when I got home the laundry was put away, the dishes were washed, my jar collection was all properly matched with their lids, and even the crock pots were cleaned out -- courtesy of my kids.
My book proof with ISBN also came in the mail, and looks great so I was able to approve that for distribution. One more baby step to world recognition. Lulu's having a sale on orders of ten books or more, (in select sizes) so my next hope is to scrounge up money for that so I can have some copies for libraries and book reviewers -- and hopefully a few off line sales.
It's easy to see obstacles. We want to run on autopilot, move straight ahead, keep our eyes on the prize. But sometimes, we forget to look at what's at our feet. We stumble, curse a bit, try to go back to business as usual. But the reality is, there's not much "usual" in business these days. Personal or otherwise. Life has always been a mine field, and right now it seems there are more mines than ever -- but it doesn't mean there's not a lot of good stuff out there too. We just really have to keep our eyes open.
Gretchen Lee Bourquin is the author of the novel No Sensible People, available in print from Lulu.com and Amazon.com. A preview of the 2nd edition is available as a free download for a limited time via her website.
