Ready or Not

Whew! It’s been a while. I’m still here. Living. Writing. Laughing when I can. I’ve thought about blogging twenty times a day since the last post ten months ago. I have snaps on my phone that make no sense now, but at the time, I connected them to an idea. Something to share here.

I wasn’t ready.

Hence, the graphic ↑.

Last week, Cherry cleaned her room. If you know a normal sixteen-year-old, then you understand the magnitude of the event.

“Mom, I don’t want this.” She handed me a clear acrylic cube of printed cards.

“What are they?”

“Conversation starters. The white elephant gift from the swim team Christmas party.”

It’s been parked on my desk since. This morning, I opened the box and withdrew the first card.

How do you measure success and who do would you consider a successful person?

Taylor Swift. Barack Obama. J. K. Rowling. Elisabeth Crisp.

Success isn’t talent, money, power, or accolades. It’s knowing at the end of the day, I’ve done my job. It’s a line of sequential X’s on the calendar, representing the days I put a pen to paper, fed my family, bound a wound, or made another person laugh. Success is measured in quantity time.

Quantity. Not quality.

Time. Not dollars.

Are you ready to start?

How much are you willing to give?