I am still in the early days of my writing career, so I know there’s a lot more perseverance ahead of me. I’ve dreamed of being a writer for must of my life, but I took a long and winding road to get here. When my husband and I moved to Las Vegas we went through a difficult time financially. We hadn’t prepared for a lot of the set backs we faced and it was rough. We couldn’t afford do anything more than pay the bills, and even that was a juggling act. My husband came home from the grocery store one day with a little rose plant. It was on sale and he wanted to plant something in our front yard, which was nothing but dirt, to make me smile. So, he planted that little rose bush and it thrived. It was a spot of color in a dreary time in our lives.
Flash forward a few years. Things were going well and we could finally afford to fix up the house. We agonized over the plans for the front yard because doing what we wanted to do meant that the little rose bush (it was definitely a bush by then) had to be pulled up. We said goodbye to that little spot of color, knowing part of the new front yard included and actual rose garden with much bigger spots of color.
A few months after the yard was finished my husband spotted that little plant peeking up through the grass. The landscaper had pulled it out, but missed some of the roots. We were thrilled to see our little friend and took it as a symbol that there would always be a way to get through the hard times.
A few years later, our landscaper cut the whole thing down, inadvertently. We were heartbroken, but watched that little spot of our front yard for weeks until…you guessed it, that little rose bush came back again. For us, it has become proof that if you keep trying, there’s always a way forward. We’ve experienced some dark times in our lives. We’ve both almost died. We’ve faced major financial setbacks. We’ve lost loved ones and friends. Through it all, we’ve stood together. And for the last twelve years that little rose bush has showed us that beauty can follow even the most trying of setbacks.
I decided to use this story as the first blog post on my new website, because I don’t know what the future holds. I’m going to start releasing my Gridiron Knights series later this June, which I hope will be successful. But now that I am finally taking the time to get my stories out there, I am going to keep writing. I hope my readers will love my characters as much as I do, but I’m still going to keep writing. Even if I’m only the spot of color for one reader, it will be worth it.