Stopping to Smell the Roses

Whew! What a week it's been! Did you ever have one of those weeks where life just seems to keep throwing you things, so much so that you don't know whether you're coming or going? That's the kind of week I've had.

First off, the weekend was great, I got an ungodly amount of writing done (more on this tomorrow in my A Writer's Week post). On top of that, unlike most of my Sundays when I write, I wasn't a hermit. I wrote a little, then I actually got outside and threw the football around with my whole family (yes, even my wife touched the football, not something she's keen on). We had a blast. Then I went back in and wrote some more. Fantastic.

Then, it was Monday. It was a busy day at work--lots of prep going on for a major training initiative coming up. That was okay, I was expecting that. I've been working on this for a while. Tuesday comes, and now it's monkey wrench time. Plans are thrown out of whack by an unexpected schedule change. Annoying, but nothing too radical, at least not after it all got settled. The only problem was, it took a good part of the day. Oh well, I thought, there's always tomorrrow.

Well, tomorrow came, bringing with it it's own set of challenges. Another reworking of schedules annd putting off what I really needed to concentrate on. I would always rather concentrate on one thing, but my job usually demands that I multitask, which helps keep the brain limber--doesn't it? Today was more reworking of schedules and improvising, and running a Lions Club meeting, and running here and there,, but everything turned out okay. It all got done.

If it sounds like I'm rambling on and venting a little bit, you'd be right. This is a total venting post. But then I got to thinking. Was this week crazy? Yes. Did I feel like I was running around all over the place both at work and at home? Sure. But if I stop and think about it, this week had some fantastic moments stuck in between the crazy ones.

For one thing, I sold some paperbacks on Amazon for the first time in a while. I sold a dozen copies of The Deliverers: Sharky and the Jewel in person this week. Kindle sales are okay. I spent some fun time with the family. I work for one of the few companies that gives you a little bonus if they did well the previous year, and we received that this week. My wife is still speaking to me, even when I come home bent out of shape about my day and then park myself in front of the computer to write interviews with characters from books.

Our lives get pretty hectic, and they don't always go the way we want or plan, but there is always at least a little good that goes on in our lives. We just have to take a minute to stop and recognize it. Stop and smell the roses. They're always there, among the thorns. Take a look, and I'm sure you'll see them, too.