Good Things will Come.

          I missed yesterday’s scheduled blog post because my kid had his tonsils out. The removal of said tonsils is a good thing because they’ve been an issue for him. He’s going to college in August, and really, anything that helps him be healthier and more successful is something I can embrace. Less sore throats in his future is a good thing. Today, he’s dealing with the discomfort, the medicine that makes him nauseated, and the boredom of having to take it easy. Not talking isn’t a huge problem thanks to our cell phones. Overall, I’m choosing to see this surgery as a good thing and an analogy for the future.

                Right now, there is pain and some discomfort. However, this is temporary, and I believe these things will pass. Once they pass, I believe good things will come back. This temporary detraction is part of the set up for a life to come. One filled with opportunity and the pursuit of happiness.

                When my son goes off to college, he will have the opportunity to make a life for himself and pursue happiness on his own terms at an ever-increasing rate. Over the course of senior year, we’ve talked about how there always seems to be a period of “stalling” before the next phase of life begins. High school ends with a year when the class load pales in comparison to the previous year, the goal being to keep your grades up so that if you have a conditional acceptance, you’ll meet those conditions. Sure, there are Advanced Placement classes, and not slacking is important, but, honestly, the pressure of senior year compared to junior year isn’t nearly as intense. The relaxed pace slows the year and creates gaps that are filled with other thoughts. Right now, he’s experiencing the anticipation of having to wait to begin the next phase of life, along with some anxiety that he’s leaving behind what is familiar.

                The anticipation is worse than the anxiety. He’s been to six schools in 13 years, so he’s learned how to navigate. The anticipation is worse because he has no control about how slowly time passes. He can mark off the days, keep up with his homework, and do the things high school seniors do, but he cannot make the days go faster. In that respect, we are in the same boat.

                The last few weeks were very difficult, and I spent much of that time lamenting my situation. I want to be done with that.

My intention now is to move forward by looking forward. I have a full To-Do list, and a son to help heal. I could spend my efforts moaning and worrying, but that only propagates the emotional weeds. Outside my office, I have three rose bushes, some bleeding heart vines, and a couple of coreopsis planted. Spring is coming. I would rather see blossoms than weeds.

                Intuition is telling me that buds are forming and waiting for the right combination of sun and warm temperatures to burst out with flowers because the rain has come down sufficiently already. I’m going to keep fertilizing, and weeding so that my Oklahoma roses will be Sooner red and the hydrangeas in front of the house will bloom soccer ball size.  

                Good things will come. Flowers, freedom, success. I’m happy with the progress on the book, and I’m working to find an agent who will see goodness in that, too. The days are getting sunnier and longer, so I’m able to get outside more. Before I leave Pittsburgh, I plan to explore a little more by walking in the city. I don’t want to look back and think that I should have done more, on any front, because when the good things do start coming, I want to know that I’ve earned them, that I brought them to fruition.

                The day my book is sold to a publisher will be a huge day for me. I’ve worked on this for years, starting with other manuscripts for which I apologize to anyone who suffered through them. I’ve had to learn vast amounts, swallow some pride, pick myself up from time to time, and keep going. When I say that the call from an agent telling me there is an interested publisher will be a life changer for me, I regret that words cannot capture true experience. It’s cliché to write that my heart races some, and I shake a little just thinking about that call. Cliché as that is it is no less true for the hackney of it.

The call will come; I feel it as certain as I feel the change in the air – the warmer feeling even when the temperatures don’t reach sixty degrees, even when the sun is still backlighting a cloudy sky. Graduation will be a warm, hopefully sunny, day. This summer will be filled with transition. Before Fall arrives, we will all move on from this place, this point in life. Moreover, good things will come. Good things always come, I just have to remember to make them welcome.