The J in the title font looks pretty weird in my word processor. I wonder if it will look like that in the final post, but I suppose by the time this reaches your eyes, you will already know.
It's a little thing, the J's in the title, but I've been exposed to an idea these last couple of weeks that it's the little things that can free us and it's the little the little things that can rule us. A little thing can be so powerful, but how many of us truly pay attention to the little things? How many of us actively seek out the things we're grateful for and have rightfully placed in our lives instead of focusing on the next great shiny object that glimmers like an illusory thing on a far-off horizon only visible to our mind's eye?
Ultimately, my writing looked at granularly can be considered a hobby. If viewed on a macro-scale it's a large multi-year endeavor, fraught with risk, lost time, personal realization, rewards, and who knows what else. Perception about the journey can truly shape everything.
Perception of the point of view character should shape the role. Perception of the author can shape the thematic messages and expressions of the work as a whole. And Perception of the journey for a writer (or anything really) can make or break the entire thing.
It's easy for me to look at all the time spent and all the time that still needs to be spent as incredibly daunting. And honestly, who knows, it might truly break me or knock me from my path if I let the length of the road ahead scare me from walking it. Or I can look at what I'm doing now, find the things that I enjoy in the present moment, and build the discipline needed to take care of the rest.
If I break the journey down into a day, it's manageable. If I scale it up to cover the entire journey from start to finish, it's full of daunting unknowns. And I think that's the trick. You need to know where you're going, but you also got to be able to wake up, achieve tasks, and do things that get you closer to your goal. You don't just wake up one day and write a book (or at least I don't). You got to wake up, show up, chip away, and walk that journey of 1000 miles a step at a time. And you can either find things to enjoy in that journey or focus on the negatives.
Although it's so much easier said than done, I know who I'd rather be. I'd rather be the person that enjoys the weird shape of the J in the moment and all the other random little things in life rather than let it haunt me as yet another thing I don't know in this massive endeavor of trying to be an author.
So good luck everyone on your own personal journeys and I'm sure in the blog posts to come, we'll continue to reflect and review the journey itself.
Sincerely,
Josh Acocella
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