Watching the grass grow....

The lawn people have just re-seeded my lawn and as I ponder each blade of grass establishing its roots and struggling up through the solid clay foundation of my lawn, I am thinking how much this is like writing and publishing.  We cast our thoughts around, hoping they will fall together and take hold to make a story that everyone wants to read.  However, as the clay makes it difficult for these newly spread seeds to grow, so it is for the story lines to run together in an acceptable form.  This is harder than my clay could ever be. 

As the days go by the tiny seeds try to escape being devoured by hungry birds...as my story characters try so hard to stand their ground and develop into special beings...ones that will stand up to hard scrutiny by editors.

Some of these seeds, and stories, will survive.  They have passed the first test.  But, that is only the beginning.  Now they must hang in there over the winter months, to sprout again in the spring.  My characters have passed the test of my friends and relatives all exclaiming their power in the written world.  Will they survive the winter?  Will they survive the test of the publisher?

I will water my grass seeds daily until winter.  This will give those tiny seeds as much nourishment as I can possibly give.  They will be fertilized once more before they go into hibernation.  My characters will be given new lines and rewrites until I am exhausted from trying and have done the best I can do.

I will have to wait and watch.  It's a slow process and one that requires patience.  Is that why the Lord has given me the gift of writing?  Is it to instill patience in me..a very impatient person???  I want that grass now.  I want my book to be published now. 

Maybe the best part of all is that I have been given the time to wait and watch and to perfect that which I can.  When I have done all that I can do it may not be good enough for the world; I may not have the best looking lawn on the block.  No publisher may ever want my book.  But, I will have tried and used all the tools I have to obtain my goal.  I will try to be satisfied, knowing that I have been happy doing what I love the most...growing things.  Growing grass; growing stories; growing patience.