A Month of Mother's Days

"We thought that, perhaps," said I, hesitating, "it is right to begin with the obligations of home, sir; and that, perhaps, while those are overlooked and neglected, no other duties can possibly be substituted for them." - Charles Dickens, Bleak House

For me, Mother's Day is not merely just a once a year holiday. Mother's Day is every day. These are the days that Mother is obligated to take her daughter to dance classes, recitals, sit with camera in hand at the many school performances, pick up brownies at the grocery store for class snack (there is no time to bake), doctor's appointments, play dates, choir practice, meals, baths, and oh so much more. Therefore, I am reminded every single day of the gift that God has given me; my little girl.

That being said, there is hardly time for creative writing at the closing of an average school year. By the time the end of the day draws near, I want nothing more than to crawl under the covers and read...whittling down my stack of Southern fiction novels, a few non-fiction tomes thrown in for good measure.

So, when there is so little time, what should a writer do? I have found that you do whatever you can to stay focused on literary activities, even if that means you do nothing but blog, network, send off manuscripts, attend book clubs, scribble down story ideas in the carpool lane, and even write a poem while sitting at an ever-lasting red light. Even when a writer is not writing, he or she is still a writer. Life happens. If a writer goes a week or two without producing anything of significance, that does not make one less of a writer. This is the mantra that I attempt to remind myself while snuggling down with a good book at ten o'clock at night, when I feel as if I should be writing and my brain is too exhausted to think.

"The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it." - Jules Renard author