10.22.2012

Getting There

I have a couple of whiteboards in my study, on which I write various and sundry things meant to inspire me. It's not there any more, but I'd once written the following quote:
Success is a journey, not a destination.
I didn't have the attribution for it, but according to The Quotations Page where I looked today, Arthur Ashe said it.

The quote brings to mind the old saying, "Getting there is half the fun." Lately my journey hasn't been nearly as much fun as I'd hoped. Still, I'm beginning - finally - to come to grips with the concept that we make our own success, and that my own journey isn't going to be exactly like everyone else's. No one else can define success for you. Sure, we have the world's view of what it means to be successful (think Warren Buffett, if you will). But I don't see that as the only standard by which we are judged.

I'm not going to get on my religious soapbox here. If you know me, you know I am a believer, and my standard of success is how I make use of the gifts God has given me, and how what I do with them brings honor and glory to Him. My point is, do you know what your own standard is? If not, shouldn't you? Does what you do define who you are, or does who you are define what you do and how you do it?

Fall is my favorite time of year. Something changes in the air - it's cool, clean, crisp. The colors and the smells are different, more vibrant, more beautiful. The area we live in is full of tobacco barns, rolling hills and somewhere in the neighborhood of a bazillion trees that flaunt the change of season with the brightest and deepest of reds, yellows, oranges, golds and browns. The view is breathtaking.

And it puts things in perspective, at least for me. With all this majestic realm of creation surrounding me, how can I not be creative? I'm enticed to sit here and absorb the fresh air and sunshine, the spectacular splashes of color, the sounds and smells of fall, and as I let it all fill me up, something wonderful happens. I feel the need to release some of that energy into doing something that just might bring a little more fun to my journey.

On the ereader: I just finished reading J.K. Rowling's new book, The Casual Vacancy. My thoughts in a word: wow. (I will have to elaborate on that later.)

On the nightstand: At the day job, we're circulating the Fifty Shades trilogy. The first book has just come home with me, so I'll be starting that in the next day or so.

Normally I have some sort of music playing in the background, but today I'm sitting at the kitchen table instead of my desk, and the music I'm listening to is the sound of a gentle breeze and the songs of whatever birds happen to be spending their breaks in my trees. And the contented sigh of a happy writer finding motivation to resume the journey in a peaceful fall day.

Read a book. It's good for you.

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