TEN REASONS WHY

(THIS BLOG POST IS LATE)

by Judy Enderle

Okay. First want to let you know that Laurie missed her post month because of a manuscript revision deadline and a family wedding and company, company, company. She’ll make it up when she stops running and can sit down for awhile.

Now, about this post, which is late!!! Here are the reasons:

1. Stephanie was moving and I had to help her pack.
2. My son needed gardening help so I had to dig.
3. Stephanie was moving and I had to help her pack.
4. I had a stomach ache.
5. Stephanie was moving and I had to help her pack.
6. I was tired from helping Stephanie.
7. Stephanie moved and I’m helping her unpack.
8. I haven’t had time to write. (Guess why.)
9. Life got in the way: I had to get a haircut and pay bills.
10. Stephanie moved and I’m still helping her unpack.

Life doesn’t change when you are a writer. April! The beginning of a new month. Well, another round of bills arrived. (But I don’t need my hair cut again—yet. Instead I have a doctor’s appointment and my six-month dental checkup.)

Excuses pile up and they keep coming even if they change names. But that’s life. You have obligations and you need to take care of yourself and your family and friends. So don’t beat yourself up when life gets in the way or you are helping a friend or your idea well seems to have run dry. Help out. Fulfill your family obligations. And it’s even a good idea to take a break because you need one.

This week enjoy spring, watch the birds build their nests and marvel as the flowers open, survivors of a long and cold winter. Take a walk or swing on a swing and you’ll soon be inspired, refreshed, and ready to get back to the keyboard.

Where does it come from, the love of words? Are word lovers born or created? Maybe both.

In my family, my parents were both avid readers. Until his death at a 101, my father was a weekly visitor to the public library where he checked out the LARGE PRINT books. Give him a good adventure, action, suspense, mystery novel or a historical biography and he was happy. My mother was an English teacher and it wasn’t unusual to receive a letter from her with a “story idea” for her aspiring author daughter. She also loved crossword puzzles as much as books and passed that love along to my sister and me. Words!

As life moved ahead, my children and I visited the library on a regular basis. They all loved science fiction and fantasy as well as animal stories. I took writing classes, met my author friend and writing partner, Stephanie. Publication happened first with “Highlights for Children,” then with children’s book publishers. Words!

More time has passed. I’m now a grandmother. My daughter is publishing books in the adult market to strong reviews. Her books are the type my dad would have loved, full of action and intrigue. Her latest is The Shadow & The Sun. My older son is dabbling in science fiction short stories and a novel is getting birthed. All three of my kids wipe me out in Words With Friends, especially my younger son, and I have to work hard to match wits with both my grandgirls at this game, too. Words!

Yeah! Words! Is it the sound, the meanings, or the challenge of using those 26 letters to create an entire world populated with intriguing characters that makes them so appealing? Most likely all three and more. Whatever it is, word genes thrive in our family. How about yours?

In January one is supposed to make resolutions to mend one’s ways or achieve greatness or rid oneself of unhealthy habits.

Well, I don’t want to mend my ways; I realize I’m pretty happy with the way my ways are now.

I’ve achieved some greatness and lost some greatness and have landed back in the middle which isn’t a bad place to be. No need to resolve other than to keep moving forward and let the words fall where they may.

So that leaves unhealthy habits, usually involving food and exercise. I can swear off sugar entirely (I’m quite sweet enough), but that would be a wasted swear since I know right well that I’ll still have two biscotti with my coffee in the afternoon. So why waste a swear? As to exercise, I walk and I garden and I clean house, so my parts are moving, not too fast nor too slow. No need to promise to exercise more than that.

Thus I’ve come to realize that this resolution business is more of a taking stock, but it doesn’t mean you have to change a single thing. And how many of the resolutions actually last more than two months? Still, it is the first of a new year. How can I break tradition? So in the spirit of the new year, here are my resolves:

1: Change what I don’t like; keep what I like about me.

2: TRY to be more patient with myself and with others.

3: Make Words with Friends a reward, not a replacement for writing. A paragraph counts as writing, doesn’t it?

4: Make it one biscotti with coffee instead of two. (I know I won’t keep this one. See? A wasted swear.)

5: Be thankful for loving family and friends. This one I can do! I am so very blessed.

6: Get back to work. I can do this right now.

Off to a fine start. Six is a good number of resolutions for a year that ends in 6. May 2016 be a great year for you and yours and good luck with your resolutions. (Save your swears, you made need them when rejections show up, unless you’ve resolved not to let rejection bother you. Let me know how this works out, so I can use it for my resolution next year.)