Dreaming

This month's issue of Working Mother Magazine has an excellent guest editorial by Claire Cook. The title is "Dreams do come true: prepare to be inspired".

Claire Cook wrote her first novel sitting in her minivan waiting for her daughter during early morning swim practice sessions. To a frustrated writer, these are welcome words indeed. It seems that for every published writer who started early in life, there is also someone who started later in life.

Recently I've been feeling quite introspective about my life. I'm experiencing a multitude of life changes all at the same time. Circumstances have dictated that I'm no longer gainfully employed, but instead I'm a stay at home "sandwich generation mom" taking care of my seven year old daughter and my seventy six year old mother. Additionally, I'm in the midst of a divorce. Since my mother sleeps a lot and my daughter spends six hours a day in school, this has given me six hours a day in which to contemplate my life - between naps. I still don't have any definitive answers about what I'd like to do when I finally grow up. Yes, I'd love to be a writer. Like the song Tim McGraw sings, "Do you want it? Can you feel it? Is is burning deep inside?" I think so. The writing has certainly been festering long enough. This is an ideal time to tackle a project - so why haven't I done so? Fear of failure coupled with laziness, compounded by feeling like I'm rather dull these days.