One day at a time

My husband, knowing how much I enjoy cryptograms, gave me Cryptogram-a-Day by Louise B. Moll for Christmas. Often the quote for the day is just the reminder I need. This is the case with today's quote by Thomas Carlyle. "Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand."

Much of my time in the past month has been consumed with concern and planning for the future, striving to anticipate and control the outcome on several fronts, so that daily tasks have suffered, putting me farther behind than ever. Of course there is a difference between worrying about the future and planning for it. As a publisher, I must plan far in advance in order to have everything come together for the release of a new title. As an author/presenter, I must plan ahead to schedule events as well as to prepare for them. Proper planning prevents poor performance, as the saying goes. But that is very different from worry and anxiety about what might happen.

For more quotes on the subject of worry, I went to www.worldofquotes.com. Here are a few of my favorites:

"Worry gives a small thing a big shadow." Swedish Poverb.

"Worry is interest paid by those who borrow trouble." George Washington Lyons

"It ain't no use putting up your umbrella 'til it rains." Alice Caldwell Rice

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength." Corrie Ten Boom

My goal for today is to replace every inkling of a worry with gratitude, and I have much for which to be thankful. If a concern that requires an action comes to mind, then I will perform the action and then discard the worry.

Just one of the many things for which I'm thankful is the opportunity I had last weekend to go to Billings and meet with students and teachers at Lockwood Elementary school and later visit the Prairie Blossom Gift Shop as their featured artist for the Billings Art Walk. I loved speaking with the fifth-graders at Lockwood. They were attentive and had great questions.

The proprietors at Prairie Blossom are two lovely women who made me feel right at home and special at the same time. Among the many visitors who came into the gift shop, I met a talented artist named Rabbit Knows Gun and was able to sit and visit with him for a while. If all goes well, we may collaborate on a book. If nothing else, I've made another friend—several new friends, in fact, throughout the past two weekends. And every friend I meet is a priceless treasure.