What a
beautiful day! Brilliant September
sunshine, bright blue skies, and 80 degrees—after days of blistering heat, this
is wonderful! Eastern Iowa is one of the best-kept secrets in the US, with its quiet back roads, deeply rolling hills, timber and sparkling creeks. People mix up Iowa, Ohio, and Idaho all
the time when I say where I'm from, and even when they know its Iowa, they think of flat farm fields and livestock. But that's okay…being a secret keeps life more peaceful here! :)
We live out
in the country, and my office windows look out on our wood-fenced corrals and
the pastures beyond, where the three horses are grazing, their summer-slick
coats gleaming in the sunshine.
Across the fence, a dozen beautiful, wildly marked paint weanlings are
romping in the neighbor's pastures--providing no end of amusement to our border
collie, who is always safely contained in our yard or on our deck.
The moment he sees them, Elmo is a study in total concentration. Head low, ears pricked, body crouched, he stares at them for
hours on end, his intensity deepening when they scatter. Our son Brian says we
need to buy two sheep, so Elmo can spend his days keeping them together. He is a dog with a mission--but one
without a job. Which got me
thinking, this morning. Elmo knows
what he is and what he needs to do.
He never loses sight of that, even though he can't get close to anything
he can herd.
What about
the rest of us...are we blessed with direction and determination from the
beginning? Have we followed
through? Or have some of us found
our true desires later in life? My
daughter is already determined to be a writer. She is now midway through writing her second full manuscript
while in the midst of graduate school studies, so I have no doubt that she has
the drive, and that she can reach her goal if she stays on course. I didn't start writing until we had
grade-school aged children...and wish I'd started much, much sooner.
The heroines
in our books, here at suspensesisters, are all (or become, in the course of
their story) strong women determined to pursue their goals. How about you? What would you love to do? Have you followed your heart? Become what you want to be? Is there something you could do toward that goal now, even
if it can't be achieved any time soon? I think real-life stories about strong,
determined women are so empowering.
And now, I'd love to hear about you!
Roxanne
www.roxannerustand.com
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