Play it as it lies.

This week is a landmark, or at least it will be if it marks anything significant. In my last post, I wrote of how I have cut back my hours so that I can fill in those missing hours with writing. This is the week in which that takes effect. So here I am with my scheduled time devoted to writing, obligated to finish the hours I've required of myself, and I couldn't be happier because of it.

It is not easy to become satisfied with the current occupation we've committed to, nor to discover which one it is that will satisfy us. I have frustrated myself for years, not only longing to write, but longing to do a billion things, and finally narrowing it down to this one thing that should be such a focus for me. And after we do find it, it is not easy to be make it happen. And then when we make it happen, it is not easy to be faithful to it and to wait until we see fruit born from it.

It may seem a stretch, but I am reminded of a scene from Happy Gilmore (not my favorite movie) in which one of the men in the golf tournament grudgingly adheres to the "play it as it lies" standard, forcing him to swing off another very large and gruff-looking man's foot. I kept thinking of this scene as I attempted to play frisbee golf yesterday and repeatedly needed to throw the frisbee from an awkward angle around some plants. What I find frustrating about these situations is that neither the man in the movie nor I could hope to make it into the hole in our next shot, and we likely would have to aim in a direction that is not our goal, but that will bring us closer to our goal.

Now, I can look back at my life and think of every awkward angle that unexpectedly brought me here and have confidence in every one that will bring me forward. That is what will give me the persistence in reading short stories when I really like novels and writing for practice when I really just want to write stories, and it will give me the patience not to try to publish works that aren't ready and to be faithful to the hours scheduled that do not seem productive.

When we look at our golf ball buried under leaves or in a sandtrap, we have to accept one thing: our golf ball is buried, and we most likely need to face that situation before we take the swing that puts the ball in the hole. That is why now is perfect, because I will never get there without being here.