Push through it.

Sometimes, that is just what you have to do.  Call it what you will.  The old nose to the grindstone.  The shoulder to the wheel.  Good old fashioned elbow grease.  Gumption. Tenacity.  Or sometimes, even just hanging on by the skin of you teeth.

Okay.  Just a moment here.  I have to shoot down another path while I am thinking of it.  Yes.  One of my infamous segues.

I watch two game shows.  Wheel of Fortune, and, Jeopardy.  Whenever I get the chance, really.  Some nights it makes me feel smart. Other nights… pretty dang dumb.  Either way… I like to watch.  But one evening … the puzzle on The Wheel was… “Nose to the Grindstone.”  It was “College Night Competition” or something.  They had all the letters except for the “G” I think.  Maybe not the “O” either.  Nonetheless.   They couldn’t get it!  Those kids had never heard the phrase… Nose to the Grindstone.

I think that may say a thing or two for younger generations.  I guess now they just say they had to bust @ss or something.   Anyway….

Back to the topic.  Wait. Wait.  One more sidetrack.  My brother made the dresses Vanna White wore…. when The Wheel was in Seattle, WA, not too long ago.  I love my brother.  He is so snappy like that.  I can’t sew on a button… but he is some kind of wizard with a needle and thread.

Okay. Now really.   Back to the topic.

Lately…. HERE on this project…..  I have been feeling stagnated.  Blocked. Stale. Clogged up.  And… obstructed.   There are times when the topics just flow.  But lately, it has been a real stretch.   So this morning, I decided to hang it up.  Blog no more.  Once and for all.

By midday I was visiting my Mom.  I read our Horoscopes to her everyday.  Mine talked about moving great distances just a mile at time.  Pushing through the feelings of frustration and such.   My Mom sat there quietly for a while… then she pointed her finger right at me and said… “THAT has to do with your writing.  You need to stick to it.  Push through it.  Find interesting topics and write about them.” (Another sidebar.  Most days, Mom thinks I am a farmer.  Other days, I am a budding cartoonist.  And still others, I am  some sort of computer programmer.)  She proceeded to give me about “40 interesting topics” to write about.  However….. she was repeating herself about every third subject or so.  I wrote them all down.  All four repeats …. times ten.

So here I am tonight.  Once again, “pushing” through.  My nose hurts from the dang grindstone, and my shoulder is tired from the wheel.  In fact… I will have to tell you… there is no skin left on my teeth.

But I think Mom, and my lucky stars are right.   There are a lot of interesting topics.  Endless, in fact.  I just have to walk that walk, one mile at a time.  One push at a time.

“I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”  –   Robert Frost

“When all’s said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it’s not so much which road you take, as how you take it.”  –   Charles de Lint

“You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself”  –   Buddha