If you do what you love, that’s freedom. If you love what you do, that’s happiness. But to be happy and free, takes effort.
I learned to swim not long after I learned to walk. I swam competitively in school. A won every event I entered a base swim meet at my first duty station. I feel safe saying, “I’m a swimmer.”
I don’t know the answer to the philosophical aspects of this. That is, do I do what I am, or am I what I do? Whichever the case maybe, throw me in over my head and I will swim. Floating is not my way.
I know people who advocate floating through their beliefs, relationships, and life singing Que Sera, Sera. If it works for them, well. I cannot imagine taking that approach to life. I like to make things happen. If I get burned doing that, well, that’s the cost of playing with fire.
When my publisher could not churn out my books at the pace I was writing, and self-publishing was unsatisfactory, I became a partner in a publishing company.
Now, I have more books scheduled to publish this year than, at times, looks impossible. Deadlines are set for each book. Time to sink or swim. Guess which I choose to do.
Although I am the publisher for this first book rather than the author, it’s a good feeling to see what I love doing bear fruit and our first book meeting the deadlines. It’s been a long, strange trip to get here. I give God praise for seeing me through and for making me a swimmer. I would not be doing what I love or loving what I do if I just accepted closed doors and the opinions of those closest to me.
I have a long way to go to reach all my writing goals. I will never reach them floating along on the path of least resistance. This was true of my physical health. It is equally true of my emotional and spiritual health. If I reach them, I will have swum against the current and not quit.
Like the salmon, I may die when I get there… I’m going anyway.
Maranatha
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