Where have you been?

My friend gave me two succulents from her garden. I transplanted them into a pot and then just sort of forgot about them.  It's now been about a year and I was pleasantly surprised to see several additional smaller succulents growing in the pot.  It's amazing, really.  As I was living my life, these plants were quietly surviving and growing.  Step-by-step, day-by-day the magic of nature was happening on my front porch.

The succulents remind me of my writing journey.  Every day is filled to the brim with meetings, appointments, deadlines, play dates, dishes, laundry... you know, life.  And while all this is happening, I fill my nights with writing and editing.  Sometimes it feels like I'm burning the candle at both ends and I fear that I'll soon just burn completely out.

Currently, I'm working on novel 2 of my still nameless trilogy.  (Ack. I'm so bad at names... but eventually something will sound right... I hope.)  Honestly,  I've been feeling so discouraged.  I write and write and then when I re-read my words I worry that I'll never be good enough.  At this point, I'm not even about being good enough to publish the book.  I worry that I don't have the skill to express the story that I dream of telling.

But then I look at this small pot of succulents and I realize that I'm just like them.  Word by difficult word, sentence by awkward sentence, I also am growing.

So friend, if you are also struggling in your writing journey, take heart.  Let's keep being forgiving towards ourselves and forging on this path.  We have stories to tell.