These past two months have taught me so much about resilience and pushing past the overwhelming feelings of exhaustion and frustration.
The exhaustion was bought on by trekking to New York City every weekend on either Amtrak or New Jersey transit to promote Furry Mouse and my summer program for Write Away. It also involved staying at various Air BNBs throughout Brooklyn and also locating a storage unit to house my books and other materials so I wouldn’t have to carry them back and forth. Navigating these logistics for nine straight weekends was costly as well as mentally and physically draining.
I had to be extremely diligent in eating the right foods, exercising daily, and feeding my spirit with Godly scriptures and meditations.
Frustration would surface when sales were low, the nagging and ongoing financial challenges that would pop up at the most inopportune times, and when social media marketing attempts seemed to go unheard.
And finally, the most dreaded of them all, at least for me- insecurity. Always lurking and hovering above waiting for me to let my guard down and succumb. ” Who do you think you are?” “You call yourself an author?” “When was the last time you actually WROTE?”
That last one was the most stinging and hurtful because I couldn’t remember.
These last two months I have not committed to my writing practice, but to the promotion of my completed work, Furry Mouse.
And now that things have slowed down and I’m able to gain some semblance of balance and stability during my summer break, the writing will flow again. Which of course will make room for yet another completed work!
When I’ve made up my mind to resist frustration and exhaustion, the result has been positive sales numbers, invitations to attend future vending events, and more people acknowledging the value of Write Away.
And that is how resilience takes form! Pushing past obstacles come what may, and not allowing yourself to bask in emotions that only serve to deplete the commitment you’ve made to YOU.
Finally, as creatives, we must realize that some journeys are uphill for a moment, but eventually level out. It is our utmost duty to stay the course while looking upward and onward.