Lighting Fires

I have a story for you that is more about life than writing, but I think it is one you can learn from - especially if you get a sinking feeling every time you open your manuscript and find you haven't written near as many words as you had on your goal-tracker for the week.

We left our home in Florida to meet two of my daughters and their husbands and our grands in Camp LeJeune, NC, for Thanksgiving. To say we were excited was an understatement.

I rearranged all of my Zoom calls for the week and readied our cat to be alone for a bit - including occasional stops from my sister to make sure Catty wasn't tearing the walls down or lighting fires. My husband had the oil change done on our car, complete with an all-systems check.

On Tuesday, November 25, we arrived after an 8-hour drive. The drive was uneventful. We checked in to an ocean-side cabin with our two dogs, walked on the beach, and began food preparation.

Thanksgiving came and went in blissful companionship. On Sunday, November 30, we packed the car, cleaned the cabin, and were ready to stop by my daughter's home to say goodbye.THE CAR WOULDN'T START.

Luckily, our son-in-law was home to come by and jump the car. No juice.We towed it to the base garage ($200), who said they could not help us - the repairs the car needed were beyond them. So, we towed the car to another mechanic who would look at it ($150) on Monday.

On Monday, we found the engine was at the end of its life span. It would take anywhere from $5100 to $12,000 to fix. The car wasn't worth that much, so we decided to go to a local dealership and pick up another car.

We wanted to put our car down as a partial down payment and in order to keep payments down, we put another $2500 down. This was adding up quick and we were quickly becoming the house guests that wouldn't leave.

Monday afternoon, we found that they needed the title to the car we were trading in. SO, we asked my sister to find the title in our file box and next day it. Let me just say the title was delayed two days and we were not able to leave until Sunday, December 7th.

I had my laptop with me - I wanted to write a few words if inspiration came and I wanted to keep on top of emails. No words were written. I had reconsidered my scenes for a WIP and still don't know how I saved the changes, because they weren't saved so I could access it.

This could be the end of the stor: we received the title on Saturday, packed the new car and were on our way early Sunday morning.

However, we had traveled with a sick dog who was on anti-biotics and cough medicine for the duration of the trip. Two hours into our voyage home, our Shorkie sat in the back seat crying. We were perplexed because we had just taken him out to potty and get a drink.

A quick look confirmed that our Kavi-poo had passed in his bed on the back seat.

NOW I'm done.

All of these words to say: Sometimes life gets in the way of our creative endeavors. My goal-tracker scolded me when I got home.

I don't care. I was with my beloved family. We were given EXTRA time together. My manuscript was still here where I left it when I returned home.

I have an accountability partner that always reminds me that thinking about your manuscript, working out time-line issues, or defining characters in your mind are all intricate tasks done long before you put pen to paper.

It isn't always about the number of words on a page.

Give yourself the same grace you would another writer.

-To a successful week!