Bleak House
Posted by tmycann on Jan 20th, 2014 in indie, Job Search, writing | 7 comments
This year’s Wisconsin winter has infected my attitude this week: Bleak. The horrible thing I was pussy-footing around last week took on reality. Although I had an almost immediate job interview after having been laid off at the end of the first full week of January, this past week reinforced the worries and odd responsibilities joblessness brings to a family. Some of the hoops I’ve had to jump through even remind me of the legal tangles of the Dickens story that inspired the title of my post.
So I’m sharing this week’s image as a reminder to myself. It’s an interesting mash-up of Corrie ten Boom’s “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength,” and Leo Buscaglia’s “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” However, apparently it has its own creator: Dale Partridge. In fact, he has a whole post with three key recommendations to help untrain your mind from its inclination to worry. And his site has a bunch of other useful reminders of how to find happiness in your life, so is worth exploring further.
I will grant myself the week of depression I just lived, and be happy I managed to turn in all my classwork on time. The weather was also above 30F two of the days last week, so we got out for two walks of a total of 4.13 miles.
I also managed to release the novelette that hadn’t even been part of my original plan for this year. It was even exciting to watch as it picked up sales faster than any previous release I’ve yet had.
All that to say… apparently I can’t write new fiction from that uncertain mental space. At least I couldn’t last week. I’ll be trying again this week. (And… if anyone knows of an open position for a project manager, I’m in the market and available on short notice.) In the meantime, check out how my fellow ROW80ers are doing with their goals.
7 Responses to “Bleak House”
Leave a Reply to John Holton Cancel reply
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Tonya,
Just sent you an email about that. (:
Thanks! 🙂
I know all about being out of work, having been there since August. I’m partly disabled, so I have to have a job where I can work at home. Such as like being a writer….
Congratulations on the release of your novelette!
Your post reminded me of a sentence I saw somwhere on the Internet: “Worry is a misuse of imagination”.
I think that if you are worrying so much, you shouldn’t force yourself to write as it’s going to spoil the pleasure. Maybe just relax coming up with new, exciting stories to lift your mood a bit? I did so in the past and it helped (whereas trying to write just got me more depressed).
I hope you will find some nice job soon and things will brighten up a bit!
heh… I do have a minor attack of plotbunnies going on at the moment… 😀
Sorry I can’t be much help on the job hunt (one word: “sequestration”). One of the best books I’ve read was an old one but good: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. Sounds like you already have a good start here – good luck!
Seems like a lot of people are struggling with jobs these days–the reduction in unemployment numbers notwithstanding. Here’s to a dedicated group of persistent optimists to keep our heads up! 🙂