Blindsided, Part 2 of 3: Submissions

Dawn slipped through the bedroom blinds to sprinkle onto my eyelids at the appointed ordaining, all too soon for my willing.

When I finally awoke, I had a headache and a late breakfast. Of course Buddy came to the rescue after I asked. He served me a cup of water and half of a caffeinated tablet. If I took the whole tablet, my eyelids would close and my head tilt off, proof that I could take Ritalin for my whirling dervishes.

My head stopped pounding while I nursed my melancholy baby of a mood.
I prayed and paced. No, I begged. I begged, as always, for my kids who did not receive job news or contacts the previous week, this week.

Surgical recovery was my excuse for not submitting manuscripts since Thanksgiving when Doc E first corrected my eyes. The left dominant eye just would not focus beyond 20-40. Nevertheless, I had not submitted any good manuscripts since the previous year’s Thanksgiving when my beloved lost his job.

In this merry, merry month, the books and checks have arrived for my 2007 submissions for A Cup of Comfort Devotional for Mothers and Daughters and A Cup of Comfort for Parents with Special Needs. These printed pieces quietly prompt me to tell you fellow writers or those yet to be published, “Keep on, keeping on. Write, then submit what you write.”
For you without good jobs, the encouragement is the same: “Keep on, keeping on.”

Like Buddy does with his Abilities Discovered counselor, he submits. In dashing dress shoes, pants, and casual button down shirt, Buddy smiles as he submits resumes all over town.

“Hi, how are you?” he’ll respond in greeting. Bud is challenged by direct questions. He knows how to work through his blind spots, to grin a dashing smile as he turns to his counselor for her to answer. Even if he’s turned down, he continues to smile and submit.

I turn to my own Counselor, but discover it’s me, myself, I who must finish the queries. I must keyboard to submit and also submit to the One who gives me the fuzzy faith to overcome the frown of rejection with the smile of trust.