Celebrate The Small Things- July 12th

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This has been a very bipolar week for me, full of ups and downs, testing me and elating me. Let’s start with the down part, since it’s most relevant for writing.

First, I learned that my piece was not selected to compete in Write Club. It was a rather bleak Monday morning to begin with since the first day back at work after a long weekend is always tough. But heading over to D.L.’s site and not reading my pen name on the list was a big blow. Without even realizing it, I’d developed a false sense of confidence over the piece I submitted. And there was really no reason to, given that I let myself wait till the last minute before writing it.

And that’s where the gratitude comes in. Because as soon as I read the first set of stories I knew why my piece hadn’t been picked. 500 words is not a lot to work with and whatever you’re going for you’ve got to go BIG. If it’s action, it’s gotta be action packed. If it’s emotion, it’s gotta be deep emotion. If it’s romance, you gotta leave the reader swooning.  My piece, in addition to not being fleshed out enough (in my appraisal) couldn’t make up its mind. Is it humor, action, YA- what? If I can’t answer that question then the reader certainly won’t be able to.

So I’m grateful for Write Club because it taught me an incredibly valuable lesson. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn from the authors who did get chosen to compete (cause everyone of them so far are heavy hitters). I’m grateful for myself choosing not to wallow (because trust me, I SO wanted to) but instead taking it for what it is: an unequivocal learning opportunity. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I have to say that this incident highlights my growth as a writer. Cause honestly, a year ago I don’t think I would’ve found the gratitude in this. So yay for me!

And, on the other side of the spectrum, the big boost that propelled me out of the hole and straight into the cosmos (and no more than a day later at that): I got my license. I’m a counselor, for those of you who didn’t know, and counselors need to be licensed by the state to practice outside of an agency. I. E. Any therapist you’ve ever seen who had their own private practice and charged your insurance company for a session has a license. For a variety of reasons (which I won’t get into because this post is already way too long) it’s taken me 7 years to finally get mine. 7 YEARS! And it finally happened! WOW!

It’s the biggest development of my professional career since I got my master’s (7 years ago). It’s hugely significant in terms of its implications for job eligibility. And after 7 years you can bet it’s a pretty damned big personal accomplishment. It’s the kind-of thing that’s so exciting you’re actually a little stunned that the rest of the world doesn’t just stop for a minute to throw you an impromptu ticker tape parade. (Though I did get a round of applause in group supervision, which was SO appreciated!) And besides, I KNOW that this is big. So yeah, I’m pretty excited.

And those are the valleys and mountains for me this week. Pretty big on the whole, If I do say so myself. I apologize if this was longer that you’re used to for a blog hop- but it’s not everyday that things like this happen in the world of Bev, so I had to take the time. Thanks for reading.

And now, of course, I invite you to do what you do every Friday: go hop!

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1. Suzanne Furness The Word is. . .	2. Julie Flanders	3. tara tyler
4. J. A. Ward Writes	5. Lara Lacombe - Romance With an Edge	6. Life, yoga and other adventures
7. Charity Pence	8. Ink in the Book	9. My Baffling Brain
10. Scribbles From Jenn	11. Tyreans Writing Spot	12. Writing Off the Edge
13. Father Dragon Writes	14. Lexa Cain	15. Michelle @ Writer~In~Transit
16. The Write Game	17. Writers Mark	18. Entertaining Interests
19. Reading, Writing and Everything in Between	20. Effectively Human	21. Jen Naumann Author
22. Mary Pax	23. Diana Wilder - About myself, by myself. . .	24. Pasha, From Animal Shelter to A Sheltered Life
25. S. K. Anthony	26. Agenthood and Submissionville	27. Defending The Pen
28. Queendsheena	29. Bouquet of Books	30. Kidbits
31. A Good One	32. Black Coffee and Cigarettes	33. Mark Noce Stories
34. Putting Pen to Paper	35. Writers Block	36. Rebeccah Writes
37. Sisu Diaries	38. Debs Writing Room	39. Melanies Blog
40. Espirational	41. melanie schulz	42. The Prosers
43. Shah Wharton's WordsinSync	44. Intentional Insights by S. Kelley Harrell	45. Creating Wordlenik
46. Cathy Keaton Writes, or Tries To	47. Simply Sarah	48. Today, I think. . .
49. Felicity Burnett (WR)	50. Janice Heck, My Time to Write	51. The Sock Zone
52. Brandy's Bustlings	53. M. J. Fifield	54. Constantine
55. Nana Prah's Blog	56. BaMes Live	57. The Journey South
58. The Reluctant Author	59. Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne	60. Laugh Quotes
61. Shayla's TeaGarden	62. The Beveled Edge	63. Rossandra White
64. Writing's Not For Weenies	65. Vidya Sury, Going A-Musing, Collecting Smiles	66. Writeful Melodies
67. Sarah McCabe- Falling Toward Mythopoesis	68. Meredith's Musings	69. Sarah J. Clift
70. Fiction and Film	71. Patricia's Place	72. Write About Nothing
73. Scribbling In The Storage Room	74. Writing and Photo Prompts from Life	75. Georgia Lyn Hunter