May 22^nd: 

  (hill of beans)

Is your work space working? Mine wasn’t. My desk faced the wall. I dreaded staring at that white space, trying to be creative. So I painted the wall teal. Starring at a teal wall wasn’t much better. So, I “set to” as my mother would say and scrubbed that entire room, top to bottom. Then I flipped my desk to face out toward the hall, replaced the bulky leather desk chair with a lighter, blue webbed armless wonder, downsized the clutter and then, I loved my new space. But it still wasn’t working.

I bought a laptop, added a keyboard, mouse and larger screen. Of course, I had to buy a Microsoft software package and by now, my little whim of improving my writing space had escalated by mucho dinero.

End result: I wound up with a much nicer place to work, but I must go back to the first step in writing: BIC. No matter how nice the workspace is, no matter how comfortable the new chair is, no matter how fast the laptop is, I still have to write the @#$%^ book. That’s where I come in.

Sometimes my mind is so cluttered with ‘stuff’ that doesn’t matter a hill of beans. I’ve heard my Mother use that comparison all my life, but didn’t pay much attention to it until now. Exactly how much does a hill of beans matter? According to the online dictionary, a hill of beans is “of trifling value.” That’s pretty insignificant, but unfortunately, a large part of what overtakes my thoughts (and hence, my time) can be pretty insignificant, at times.

Instead of looking for ways to improve my writing experience, I just need to experience improvement in my writing. I love that quote by R. S. Grey: She believed she could, so she did. I believe I can write, so I will.