begin...begin again: hope springs eternal

We're enjoying a couple of days of sunshine and unseasonable warmth here in the Northeast...enough to fool Mother Nature into thinking that spring has arrived. All sorts of feathered and furry friends have been out and around this week. The bluebirds are back. A flock of wild turkeys wandered into the yard this morning. The deer have ventured out into the meadow. And today, I spotted a school of minnows darting this way and that in one of the nearby creeks. This, too:

today

The weather has some women thinking about giving the house a good cleaning. But I don't like to clean, so I was thinking a new spring wardrobe would be nice...even though I know that spring is still a couple of weeks away.

This is just a little teaser. It won't last. It lifts your spirits and and gives you hope...but you know from experience that the weather will turn cold and wet again before the real thing arrives.

As a writer you may have experienced the same kind of thing. Let's say you've been working long and hard on a story, a poem, or a novel. You begin to think the drudgery will never end, that success will never be yours.

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Then the day arrives when your critique group raves about pages you share with them. Or, your short story is accepted for publication. Or, the agent you queried requests your full manuscript.

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Suddenly, there's hope! Reason for optimism! You're energized, ready to take on the next project. It feels like the first day of spring after a long, cold winter of revisions and rejections.

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...until you face the blank page again and the clouds roll back in.

I fully expect the weather to change again, soon. I'm certain the temperatures will fall and cold rain will sweep in. Perhaps even snow. It will follow us back inside where the hard work of writing and fear of rejection will have us wishing for spring again.