On Waiting

I  know, I know,  I have used this title before.  Guess what I am still waiting.  I am often waiting.  I have waited in hospital waiting rooms, I have waited in dentist offices,  I have waited for the phone to ring.   I bet you have too.

I am waiting, yes many of you know, especially those of you who ask, that I am waiting to hear from a publisher.  I am not waiting to hear from just any publisher.  I am waiting to hear from the publisher who is going to say yes.  The one who is going to say YES.  The one who is going to say, "we have a contract for you to sign."

Did you know that I am the same age as Laura Ingalls Wilder was when she published "Little House on the Prairie?"   It is true I am now sixty five.   I have been living into my craft as a writer for five years. It is hard to believe that is already and only five years.

So as I wait to hear not from the encouraging publishers, although I have valued all encouragement that came my way,  not from the NO publishers, although they too do important work, but from the publisher that will say yes,  I seek to live with the practice of ikigai. (Thank you, Doris Jakobsh, for teaching me this word from Japanese.)

I seek to have a sense of life and of living that includes looking for joy in small things and to being present and creating a harmonious atmosphere.  My word for 2020 is receive and so today I receive the gift of ikigai even as I wait, even as I write new pieces, even as I create new stories, even as I recover from colds.

I hold joy and presence and seek to create harmony.

and I have to tell you sometimes, I hate waiting!!

gloria fern January 2020