Today I am finding myself taking deep breaths and enjoying long sighs, but this is good! Yesterday was the 32nd Annual Nimrod Writer's Conference in Tulsa and I am.... inspired! Rejuvenated! Enlightened!! I know, this happens, but it has been quite a year and I am more motivated than ever!
I have already sent off a new query this morning, written the outline to my NANOWRIMO novel for November and hung some inspirational blurbs from the conference around my office, which my sweet daughter still calls my closet!
Days like these always make me want to pack up and move to New York. I did come home and quit two of my commitments here... respectfully. It has been a hard month with my daughter and I have decided taking care of her and persuing ME are all I can do right now!
I wanted to touch on something poignant from the conference. This is difficult, since I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I decided to talk about the mother and her three daughters. The daughters were in middle school, junior high and high school!! All feverishly making notes and listening intently to professionals decades ahead of them. But it occurred to me, these girls were really ahead of us all! During one of the speaking sessions, their mother was knitting. Knitting! She wasn't even interested in writing herself, but she had paid the registrations and made the drive, FOR HER DAUGHTERS.
So, anyone that knows me, knows I am no stranger to parental selflessness, but I was not so familiar with it as a child, so watching these four women just struck me. I am 35 and have written a few books and this was my first conference! Hooray for this mom and hooray for those girls. I told them not to let life get in the way, not to get married, not to have children. Not until they had lived a little in their dreams! I told them I am a devoted mother and very conservative and that I wasn't against domesticity. I promised them if they chased their dreams first, they would make better wives and mothers!! :)
