Saturday, April 21, 2007

Passion

After promising myself I would study tonight, I couldn't resist the "meet and greet" glass of wine my uncle offered me at the opening of his wine tasting. Of course, that led into a second...to a third..and the next thing I knew, I found myself at the table with an extra place setting before me. Yeah, I'm terrible! But oh well -- it was a lot of fun and some excellent vino to boot! (Australian Shiraz's ...HELLO...good stuff)

As the bottles emptied, the volume raised in the room, and the next thing I knew, my uncle was announcing to the table how I'd sold my book to an agent. (VBG) Isn't that cute! (g) Anyway, the group was super excited for me, and who was I to set them straight? This lead into a conversation of what the book was about, how law school figured into the whole thing, etc. etc.

One of the women in the group waited for the table to clear...and then she leaned in and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "Writing is my secret passion. I've always wanted to do it!"

Me: "Then why haven't you?"

Her: "I'm 51 -- I'm way past that now! And I lack the talent."

Me: *utter shock* "If you want to do it, do it! Who cares if it's good? Who cares how much time you can devote to it? Just do it!"

Anyway -- the conversation really struck me for some reason. I can't imagine _wanting_ to do something, and just saying...No, I've missed my window... *blinks* I spent a good fifteen minutes trying to convince this woman (one of the nicest I've ever met) that if she wants to write, that she should. Even if it's only 15 minutes a day, a couple of hours a week -- it's something, and it's one step toward living the dream she's always had. I have no idea whether I had an impact on her, but I sincerely hope so.

The whole thing just reminded me how truly blessed I am to be doing what I love to do. I don't know if I'll ever succeed -- I don't know if my books will ever be read outside of my circle of friends... but at least I know that I gave it my all and that I won't ever look back and say I always wanted to do that but never did. At least I know I put my whole heart and soul into my passion. That's all that really matters.

2 comments:

Beth said...

Great post.

This afternoon I visited an exhibit of Grandma Moses paintings.

She started painting in her seventies. And lived to see herself become famous, though I don't think she ever quite understood the fuss. She also paid no attention to critics, but just painted what she wanted the way she wanted to.

Even after her late start at painting, she had a thirty-year run with it.

Jennifer Hendren said...

Beth,

What an inspiring story! :) I should send it to this woman as further proof.

Thanks!

Jen