Just Wait Five Minutes by Joy Preble

Here in Texas we have a saying: If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. Today was the perfect example. Yesterday, it hit close to 80 degrees in Houston. This morning it was barely 30 and for about 30 minutes we had intermittent flakes of snow. Yes. Snow. (Okay, it does snow here, but not every year and usually for only about an hour.) But even for us, a 50 degree temperature differential is a bit wacky.

Life is like that, too. Yes, I know you know that. But sometimes it bears repeating, if only to remind myself that it's okay that this too (whatever it is) will pass. We just have to hang on. That doesn't mean things won't get awful -- sometimes they will. Here in Gulf Coast we have hurricanes. In '08, Ike hit us head on. It was bad and ugly and destructive. Before I lived here, I lived in Chicago where we regularly had blizzards that ate my car. It gets death wish cold and it stays that way for weeks and weeks. Once after walking half a mile to school, I arrived and discovered that there were ACTUAL ICICLES on my scarf where it had been covering my mouth. My BREATH had made ICICLES. That is very cold. But even that year, spring eventually arrived followed by summer and I'm sure at some point I complained about it being too hot.

Writing is also like that. Yes, I know you know that, too. But it also bears repeating. The first book I ever wrote got me an agent and subsequently sold and became a trilogy. That was pretty awesome. The next two books I wrote, even though I was agented and published, have never made it to a shelf.  But two different books have and two other books are coming! Even with all that, some days I wonder if I'm talented enough, smart enough, hard working enough, funny enough, clever enough… When you're going after big dreams, that cliche about how it's the journey not the destination becomes less cliche and more truth.

There is only one thing (well, one, other than death and taxes and really who wants to talk about those?) I am sure of: The weather is going to change. Something will give. Something will shift. It will be okay and at some other point it will not and there will be a cycle of that like there always is. Sometimes in fact, there will be too much sunshine and too many projects that are working and I will be saying, hey, what happened to ice storm I was expecting?

Other than that, I'm thinking it better warm up before we head to the rodeo in a few weeks. Nothing ruins my fried food on a stick from the Fried What?! booth like a cold rain. Because the rain gets in the oil and they have to shut the whole thing down and I don't get my fried Oreos.

I have my priorities, people. I really do.