It’s all in how you frame it

Was reading an article recently on how the point of a writer’s life isn’t necessarily publication and success, because lord knows how rarely lightning strikes, but in the joy of the creative process.

I firmly believe that we all need a bit more joy in our lives.  These are trying times (aren’t they all in one way or another?) and I feel the need to make the best of it as opposed to succumbing to the understandable despair.

I’ve been bogged down in editing hell for the last few months.  It’ll be worth it once I’m done but damn it, bushwhacking through the jungle is exhausting.  I just want the thing I see in my head to be somewhat close to what others read on the page.

It’s the getting there that’s exhausting.

And frustrating.

I have so many other things I want to accomplish during my limited time at the desk.

But it’s also exhilarating.  (holy shit I actually spelled that right!)

If it wasn’t I wouldn’t keep coming back to the desk, to the page, to the words.

And I have a lot more time to do that now, for good or ill.  Might as well make it for the good.

Trying to focus on the good.

Got to go away for the weekend to the north country.  That same weekend we found out that my sister-in-law had been murdered.  We knew she had passed but this was just…I mean what can you say?  She wasn’t my favorite person and I’m sure I wasn’t hers.  I just wish she could have been the mother my very wonderful niece deserves.  So very young though.  What does she leave behind?

What do any of us?

This same weekend as I was trying to have a nice time with Dad #3, his lovely bride and my two, my sister’s engagement falls apart.  She’s understandably upset, texting for lawyers and we’re all just trying to enjoy the scenery.

Let the drama intrude or go on with the day?

Find satisfaction in the daily slog of life and the moments of joy when doing what brings you there?

Or drag along, cursing and bitching the entire way?

I’d rather reframe the view and find the beauty.

It’s self-preservation if nothing else.