Patience
Patience and persistence has earned this snowy egret its dinner.
photo by Dorothy Vriend
“Indeed victory is ahead – but do not forget that included in the “ahead” are many patient, slow painstaking efforts. It seems to be very far away today . . . that “ahead.” Sonny Rollins
For the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins to have written the above in a practice notebook makes me feel better about where I am in my writing process. I’m having a hard time coming back to the manuscript of my novel Perfect Options for a third draft. I want it to be done, I want to move on. I’ve resisted coming back to it for a couple of months now.
But I discovered as a journalist, no matter how reluctant I might be at the outset, once I get engaged my interest soars and I won’t let go. It’s true for fiction too. Fiction is a rearrangement of facts, experience, history, imagination. I’ve written my story, I’ve fleshed it out and revised it, but there’s always one level deeper I can go.
Painstaking, yes. Slow? It feels that way. Victory? I’m trying to imagine it. But if Sonny Rollins can vet that patience and practice can add up to success, I’m in.
