It’s good to learn something new every day, and yesterday I
learned that I can’t (yet) make split pea and ham soup. I soaked the peas,
threw all the ingredients in the crock pot on high, and let it cook all day,
but the peas never mushed down the way they’re supposed to. It’s . . . edible?
Barely? I wouldn’t eat it a second time, though.
So, yeah, my culinary skills are a work in progress, as are
so many other elements of life.
(You're about to say something about fish, right? I've got fish!)
And now I’m taking a much needed break from the family,
hanging out at the bookstore café. I want to write, because writing makes me
happier, but I’m not sure what to work on. For a while now, nothing has pulled
at me the way a story needs to, compelling me to show up and tell it. There are
nibbles. I feel like I’m trying to bare-hand fish in a slow stream, just moving
my fingers a little and waiting for something to get close enough to nab.
It will happen. That’s something years of disappointment and
failure have taught me: there’s always another story. Be still, listen, keep
your eyes open. It will show up, in its own time. In the meantime, I plan to do
some blogging, some verse, some studying and research. I want to look more
deeply at how other people put stories together, the way they knit character
and action and theme together.
That’s the great thing about this work—there’s
always more to learn.
If I have an overarching goal for 2016, it’s to reach the
end of it feeling more whole, and strong, and hopeful than I’ve been before.
Maybe take a look at life and see that if it hasn’t taken the road I planned,
there might still be some interesting destinations on the route nonetheless.
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