Day 166, June 13

I found this quote in a writers' magazine and fell in love with it.

"The brick walls are there for a reason.  The brick walls are not there to keep us out.  The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.  Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough.  They're there to stop the other people."--Randy Pausch, THE LAST LECTURE

When I was try to break in to book writing, I felt like I encountered brick walls everywhere.  And for a while, they did keep me out.  Rejection after rejection piled up.  One year I won the award for the most rejections "earned" in one year!   I decided I wouuld give up writing.  It was obvious that I had no talent, that I had nothing worth saying, that no one wanted to hear what I had to say..

Then the unbelievable happened.  I sold a book.  I was on my way.  But three long years passed, each garnering more rejections, before I sold again.  More brick walls.

This is a convuluted story to say that brick walls are everywhere in whatever we might try.  If we want it enough, we will break them down, climb over them, or crawl under them. 

So, for today, I am grateful for those times when I can break down, climb over, or crawl under brick walls.