Every Day is a Gift

By Marcia Thornton Jones

So….I schedule an entire morning for drafting a blog post in which I’m sure to come up with something pithy and inspirational and absolutely genius. But then I get a call about some silly-sounding little accident involving sleep-walking and closet doors; a teeny-tiny misstep that for most people would be laughed off, but that for a 92-year-old requires an emergency visit to the doctor. The same 92-year-old who dedicated her life to me; who has always been there to laugh at my foibles, celebrate my victories, and mourn my disappointments. The 92-year-old who is more than a mother—she’s also my best friend. The very same 92-year-old who remains smart and funny and ‘with it’.

So…instead of writing, I take a moment to realize that the cliché EVERY DAY IS A GIFT is actually a guiding statement of truth worth remembering.

So…when real life derails your plans for scene-building or plotting or BIC-ing or whatever else you might want to call your dedicated writing time, remember this…That sometimes…

• It’s okay not to write.
• It’s okay to not feel guilty.
• It’s okay.

Because EVERY DAY REALLY IS A GIFT…and it’s the real-life gifts--especially the surprises—the good AND the bad—that provide the fodder for a time when these emergency surprises become nothing more than  memories and you have time to power up the computer and go back to thinking about the worlds of make-believe.