Anyone who reads me, which is almost everyone, uhum, knows that I love books and movies, which is why as I sit to write this post it makes me think of a line from a movie and a great book by the great JRR Tolken, The Lord of the Rings, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Now I doubt this journey is fraught with danger unless its carpel tunnel syndrome or near sightedness, but it is unknown but not unwelcome. Besides great quotes, random musings, and references of which there will be several, this post will have a purpose, several actually, which I will now get to.
I have written at length in various ways about the path, there is something deeply introspective about it and I have been told that is reflective of me. Some paths are clear and certain, others are as clear as a foggy October night in the bottomland of Kentucky, this is usually where I exist but the journey continues on. I encourage everyone to always be looking at your path, sometimes the direction taken while seemingly reasonable at first, may need recalibration at some point; stop, take a new bearing and realize you may have become lost or you may suddenly realize, you’re closer to your goal than previously understood, either way, how awesome. I know some who would question my path or that I have any understanding of it, but I say we don’t exist in a vacuum, no two circumstances are the same; we must be reminded that in order to understand another, we must first walk a mile in their shoes.
I have found that writing a book is much like life, some of it is planned and more often than not, the rest happens organically. Some of the best it seems is that organic part, because it can be so unexpected and surprising. I am at one of those points in life, a new look around, a recalibration, a journey down a path with a destination unknown, that last part bothers my control freak side. There are multiple paths I am traveling down at the moment, the path of designing and hopefully building a home, the path of being a published author, and the path of writing the other multiple stories competing for attention in my head. I think I have an interstate highway and not a path I’m traveling down and I’m looking for the emergency lane. I love my blogs, some more than others, but this one is special, this week I will announce the release date of my debut novel to world. It is an exciting time on a path I began a long time ago, one that I wasn’t sure where it would go or if it would ever go anywhere. I took a leap of faith towards something I wanted; craziness, desire, and persistence have led me to a life goal. I encourage all to find some part of their life that needs dusting off and be more like Frodo’s friend Sam, take that one step that will take you the furthest you have ever been away from home, do it with your eyes wide open and your heart full of joy, if not anxiety.
The unknown has a strange dichotomy of both allure and fear; we are both curious of what may come and hesitant that what we don’t know will not be good. The spice of life is partly derived from this. The sense of discovery is part of the joy of life; we crave new things even at the risk of setbacks and disappointment. For some this leads to confusion while others stride confidently at the fork in the road. I don’t fall into either category completely but I would say that the anxiety definitely takes hold at times. This is how I feel at the moment or maybe I have felt this way before, when I began this crazy process of getting a book, my book, out in print for the world to read, enjoy, trash, share, mock, reread, or possibly burn. I am staring down the rabbit hole and wondering where this journey will take me, like Luke Skywalker entering the cave in The Empire Strikes Back and he asked Yoda “What’s in there?” and Yoda replies “Only what you take with you.” I hope the latter isn’t true, I hope to take everyone with me on my journey and enjoy the adventure that is the story.
I have written at length in various ways about the path, there is something deeply introspective about it and I have been told that is reflective of me. Some paths are clear and certain, others are as clear as a foggy October night in the bottomland of Kentucky, this is usually where I exist but the journey continues on. I encourage everyone to always be looking at your path, sometimes the direction taken while seemingly reasonable at first, may need recalibration at some point; stop, take a new bearing and realize you may have become lost or you may suddenly realize, you’re closer to your goal than previously understood, either way, how awesome. I know some who would question my path or that I have any understanding of it, but I say we don’t exist in a vacuum, no two circumstances are the same; we must be reminded that in order to understand another, we must first walk a mile in their shoes.
I have found that writing a book is much like life, some of it is planned and more often than not, the rest happens organically. Some of the best it seems is that organic part, because it can be so unexpected and surprising. I am at one of those points in life, a new look around, a recalibration, a journey down a path with a destination unknown, that last part bothers my control freak side. There are multiple paths I am traveling down at the moment, the path of designing and hopefully building a home, the path of being a published author, and the path of writing the other multiple stories competing for attention in my head. I think I have an interstate highway and not a path I’m traveling down and I’m looking for the emergency lane. I love my blogs, some more than others, but this one is special, this week I will announce the release date of my debut novel to world. It is an exciting time on a path I began a long time ago, one that I wasn’t sure where it would go or if it would ever go anywhere. I took a leap of faith towards something I wanted; craziness, desire, and persistence have led me to a life goal. I encourage all to find some part of their life that needs dusting off and be more like Frodo’s friend Sam, take that one step that will take you the furthest you have ever been away from home, do it with your eyes wide open and your heart full of joy, if not anxiety.
The unknown has a strange dichotomy of both allure and fear; we are both curious of what may come and hesitant that what we don’t know will not be good. The spice of life is partly derived from this. The sense of discovery is part of the joy of life; we crave new things even at the risk of setbacks and disappointment. For some this leads to confusion while others stride confidently at the fork in the road. I don’t fall into either category completely but I would say that the anxiety definitely takes hold at times. This is how I feel at the moment or maybe I have felt this way before, when I began this crazy process of getting a book, my book, out in print for the world to read, enjoy, trash, share, mock, reread, or possibly burn. I am staring down the rabbit hole and wondering where this journey will take me, like Luke Skywalker entering the cave in The Empire Strikes Back and he asked Yoda “What’s in there?” and Yoda replies “Only what you take with you.” I hope the latter isn’t true, I hope to take everyone with me on my journey and enjoy the adventure that is the story.
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