Lab sitting today after a fruitful and eventful week finds my heart full of joy, humility and gratitude.
I spend so much time tapping. Writing and editing. Dreaming about my characters, plot lines and dialogue tags. Pagination and order for chapbooks and my longer works.
This week, I reached a pinnacle as a writer. I'm being published! My first full length work has been accepted for publication. learn to find, a chapbook about my mother and her struggles with all things real and imagined, will be released later this year.
I received the email in the middle of my work day in Dental World. I pretended like I didn't read it, and tried to go about whatever it was I was doing ... which lasted all of five seconds. I opened the email again, savoring each word like a delicious protein cookie and just sat back, mystified. Someone not only read my work, but liked it enough to publish it! On pages, with ink and a cover and a bio and even a cool brooding writer photo. Immediately I dashed for my phone, and messaged Double U, Ghost and Efed. I looked around and realized that Dental World must continue, so I kept in my glorious news for most of the day. Chatting with Double U at lunch, I couldn't keep the joy from my voice. Validation, finally! Listening to Double U extol my success was as much a treat as it was expanding on it on my own.
Earlier today, I spent some time at Gerena's studio while I posed for him for a new piece of art that he's anxious to paint. I was there for about three hours, and while I could have been doing many things writer and Jess-world related, I knew it was important to him that I sit as his muse. So I did, and I found a quiet sort of peace in the hours I was there. My feet ended up super dirty from walking around barefoot, but I guess that's what happens when the granola girls visits the artist's studio. The lesson I learned was that it's not always about me. In fact, one could argue that it shouldn't be about me most of the time. I find a great joy when I live for others; when I can displace what I think I need to help advance the dreams of those who are near and dear.
Gerena gifted me this most amazing typewriter as a congrats gift for my first publication. I am honored and humbled to have it, and I promised him that I'll be restoring it to proper condition. It works as shows with D's message here. I guess this means I'm officially a writer, since I have a published book and a fancy typewriter.
I'm sure there are other things that happened this week of equal import. But these are the two moments of my week that really stuck out as being impacting, fruitful and ultimately, teaching moments.
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