Sam reminded me today of an obscure scripture in Ecclesiastes that says "Whoever watches the wind will not plan; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." (11:4) We had ridden our bikes from Beverly Beach into Flagler to an ice cream shop, riding in light rain, and running onto people's porches to avoid the downpours. Whose idea was it to ride today? Don't ask. : ) He assured me sometimes you "just have to go for it", if you want to really do things.
Yesterday I was 61 years old (picture me swallowing hard and grimacing). When I was young, I loved to read. I rode quite a few miles during the summer to a woman's house in the Antioch area of our part of the world where she had a book-mobile-supplied library in a small room on the front of her home (I figured parlor). She tried to keep the type of books I liked...biographies of people that changed our world. My parents only let me do this every so often, so I learned to lay in my bed, close my eyes, and make up my own stories and live in a world beyond tiny Leoma, TN. I married and raised 5 children. I read, dreamed, and hoped. Months turned into years and my dreams lay dormant waiting for a distant thunderous voice to signal it was time to do what I always wanted to do...WRITE. My thoughts told me I had waited too long, that it might be too late. Who wants to hear the stories of an "older" woman. (LOL) But like the scripture Sam told me today, I knew that if I looked at the "proverbial skies", I would never start writing and, therefore, would never reap the rewards of satisfaction of realizing my dream. I prepared myself (and still am every chance I get) with writer's seminars and teaching. Stories bubbled up in thoughts, and I raced to put them on to paper. You, too, need to quit looking at the winds and the clouds, and start doing whatever it is you feel you need to do, those things that you dream. Dream, but plant the seeds you need for reaping.
2 Comments
Gail
3/25/2013 11:35:33 pm
Ann, thanks for sharing this message. I so admire you for following your dream. You are an inspiration to myself and so many others.
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Ann Robbins-Phillips
3/26/2013 12:45:30 am
Thank you Gail!!!!
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AuthorAnn Phillips, Tennessee native with roots in North Carolina, mother of 5, grandmother of 15 and loving life.. Archives
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