Sitting in a Blessed Spot Today

Very often, I read about writers, established writers with websites and newsletters and a few who have written books, lament that although they achieved so much, yet, they have not been published in a national newspaper.

Each time I read this comment from these writers that I admire, my heart skips a beat and my stomach turns. Why? Because I have been fortunate and blessed in my relatively short writing career to have achieved my dream, to write for the Trinidad Guardian.

The opportunity first fell in my lap as a four-month stint in 1999. You may well imagine the thrill. Then, as I have shared before here, when I decided to leave my job, I went on the prowl for a weekly column. And, well, you know, the rest is history - one year old.

This morning, I opened a newsletter I subscribe to and the editor wrote a lengthy note about all the things she had accomplished in her writing career (all of them stella and way more than I have done). Her deepest regret so far is that she has not been published in a national newspaper.

There went my heart and my stomach again.

Most times I see myself as being new to the writing world. I know that I downplay my accomplishments and my successes. But it seems that I have only traveled a very short distance and I know I have a long way still to go. There is so much more that I want to achieve.

Still it is wise and useful to stop awhile and survey the landscape upon which we stand at the moment. If I do that, I'll have to say that I sit in a blessed spot today - here at my desk, doing what I love, and one of the places that I'm doing that, is in a national newspaper.

Except for my own laziness and tendency to procrastinate, there is no room, not even a crevice for complaint in my life.

In honour of that, I keep writing my truth in my words. I retain my focus to pull from my experiences and my heart to write words that inspire, encourage, help and heal. And I do so with gratitude for all that I've been blest with.