Listen Up!
Hey, there. It’s Wednesday, the typical day when I publish a blog posting for you to think about, if not enjoy. The thing is, up until this very moment, I wasn’t sure of what to write today.
I almost posted a “Gone fishin’” sign and took my first week off in nineteen months of posting. Instead, I closed the laptop and fired up the F150 to go do some errands. As often happens, an idea came to me while I drove along. It’s not a particularly new idea, as I’m sure I mentioned something similar somewhere along the way, but it’s worth repeating.
Listen up.
I don’t mean to anyone else. Hell, we all do too much of that already. What I’m talking about is listening to your inner self. No, not your inner voice, he’s crazy. The other presence that you tend to ignore all too often. Yeah, that’s the one.
Unless I’m wrong, we’re all here for some purpose, and our inner voice/intuition/gut feeling/calling is there to guide us toward whatever that is. Will you succeed? I can’t answer that for you, except to say if you never try, you’ll never know. I’ll even use myself as an example to help you out.
When the company I’d worked at for over twenty-nine years parted ways with me, I could have hopped right back on the retail wagon and grinded my way toward retirement age. Instead, I decided to listen to the voice that’s told me I’m supposed to be a writer for over thirty years. I ignored and argued with that voice for decades, trying to make it understand that I was not good enough, that nobody would want to read about what I write, that it’s pointless. Yet, I continued to write whenever time allowed me to, while that niggling voice patiently waited for me to realize what it was trying to tell me.
Will my stories make me independently wealthy, or at least self-supporting? I’ve certainly given that a lot of thought these past two years, since my chances in this modern publishing world seem slim. Of course, using my fifth-grade math, they’re practically zero if I don’t diligently type away and try. So, I’ll continue listening to my inner voice and do what I enjoy: building worlds for folks to lose themselves in. When someone uses their voice to let me know how much one of my stories means to them, that’s a special kind of joy right there, and I hear it loud and clear.
Don’t let thirty years of ignoring your calling pass you by.
Listen up.
Whatever you are, pay attention and be a good one!
-Dave
