I am the only thing that is stopping me.

Irene Latham guided me to Perseverance Quotient. Your final score allows you insight into whether or not you have a good chance of persevering in the effort to achieve your dreams.

My Total Score: 87

85-94: Excellent, just don’t get too comfortable.


Therein lies the rub. I am waaaay too comfortable. So comfortable that I gave myself a whopping score of 3 out of 10 on number 6. The question was: Ability to focus. (Do you finish projects you start?) Ha! I do not stay on task. Which is humorous in that much of my employment history includes helping autistic children and adults stay on task. Go figure.

At this point it would be easy to say, “Hey, I have an ADD diagnosis. Really. I flit from one thought/thing to another, willy nilly. I can’t help it. It’s how God made me.” The thing is, I can help it. I am able to focus. Without medication even. It simply requires effort, tricks and technique. I know this because I have proven it on more than one occasion. More often than not, though, I glide through my days wearing my rose-colored glasses and imagining all the things that I will do. You see, I have always had great plans for myself. I just never got around to the doing. Basic survival, yes. I understood that. I got up everyday, went to work, came home and raised my five children alone. I am not lazy and I do what must be done. (I’ve read that goes back to my presumably inherited hunter/gatherer DNA.) It’s the things that I dream of doing that I have almost always failed to achieve.

But already this year I am making improvements in some areas. For example, I am staying on top of my blogs. However, I am not submitting my stories and poetry for publication. Slowly, I am going to incorporate that into my days. Using a planner that is solely for my writing schedule has kept me on target with my blogs. Now I will add “send out submissions” to that planner. Even only two a week will be something! Baby steps, folks, baby steps.

(Fear not. I have written about the trials of ADD before, but I have no intention of it becoming a recurring theme. My wiring is a bit different from the norm, that’s all. We all have our challenges and this is mine. But it is by no means an excuse.)Look...snow! (get it?)





image found here



There's a certain slant of light
by Emily Dickinson

There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons —
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes —

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us —
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are —

None may teach it — Any —
’Tis the Seal Despair —
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air —

When it comes, the Landscape listens —
Shadows — hold their breath —
When it goes, ’tis like the Distance
On the look of Death —