Good Intentions and High Hopes

Intention

The word Intention is my guiding word for the year. It is my hope to develop a stronger purpose for my writing, and for my life. With this idea, for days I’ve heard in the back of my mind Frank Sinatra singing the Sammy Cahn song, High Hopes. I can hear ‘Ol Blue Eyes’s voice so well. Copyright law precludes me from giving the lyrics here, but can you hear him, too?–singing about the ant that tries to move a rubber tree plant, and as everyone knows an ant can’t move a rubber tree plant–but he sure has high hopes. Think about all the things eaten by tiny ants, one bite at a time.

So, today I intended to get up bright and early and begin serious writing at 8am. It was (and still is) my intention to make morning hours my unviolable writing time.

Well, right away the bright and early part was missed when I stayed up late the night before and rose bleary-eyed a half an hour late. Then it was 8;30 before I got myself settled down and actually working on the book. If I had been a hard boss, I would have fired me. I wrote along for two hours on a scene that kept my attention happily, only to get stuck in it, and decide that it really had little to do with the story. It did not move the story forward, and, in fact, slowed it down. I tossed all out. I can say that it did help me to see where I do not want to go in the story, so those writing hours were not a total waste. Still, the result was not quite as I intended.

When I look at the books I have written, at anything I have written, none of them have quite turned out as I have intended. I think that is the nature of life. But one has to start somewhere, and it is the intentions that matter. You can’t even begin without the intention.

I’m still hearing Frank Sinatra singing High Hopes about the ant that just kept at it, and oops, there went another rubber tree plant.

“Our repeated failure to fully act as we would wish must not discourage us. It is the sincere intention that is the essential thing, and this will in time release us from the bondage of habits which at present seem almost insurmountable.”~Thomas Troward.

As Scarlett would have said, “Tomorrow is another day.” I go to bed with high hopes, and earlier tonight.

Blessings,