Smart Quote of the Day January 27, 2025

Today isn't a quote, but a subject–a word, really–that I've been thinking about rather a lot lately.

And the word is . . . Consequences. 

My dictionary defines consequences as a result, upshot, outcome, effect, repercussion, ramification, corollary, concomitant, aftermath, aftereffect.

Why am I thinking about consequences? They seem to be everywhere I look.

For example: We live on top of a five hundred foot bluff that is so steep you have to crawl on your hands and knees to climb it in many parts. The road leading to the top has a county number but is called the Suicide Road by the locals. That’s because if you misjudge and drive off the road you’ll either slam into a rock face or fly off into the valley below. There are no shoulders. No room for error. Neither action will have a good outcome.

The high side of the road erodes continually, dumping rocks onto the road surface. Public works must clean them up. The road is a slippery nightmare in bad weather. Several times a year people lose control and crash into the guardrails that must then be repaired. (Those guard rails are a fairly recent addition. There used to just be a wire cable that a car could flip over) The public works crew has added a new lighted sign warning of the lowest hairpin curve. The guardrail at one end of the curve was smashed the day after the sign went up.

The road never should have been built where it is; there was an alternative, more sensible, location choice. But apparently, (seven plus decades ago) someone on the city council with some clout decided he wanted the road built where it now lies for reasons long forgotten. The city continues to pay for this mistake over and over and over. Consequences of a poor decision.

When I started down this writing path I had no idea of the consequences of my choice. It  is a difficult path, arguably one of the hardest ways to make a living out there. A writer cannot depend on sales. There are always those waiting to bash the latest effort. The learning curves are steep and never-ending. Learning the craft of writing is life long. Learning the publishing game. Learning how to market, which is a moving target. It never stops.

Several major life rolls hit in 2023 that stopped me cold and forced me to reassess what I was doing. That reassessment took me more than a year to figure out. I finally realized that my life had become completely unbalanced. I was 100% focused on work, with nothing left over for all the other things I enjoy, let alone the people I love. And they needed me. I stopped writing and everything connected to it.

I won't lie, I missed the writing. Making up stories is one of my happy places. It took me until mid-2024 to ease back into putting down words. And I do mean ease. I struggled with "shoulds" until I found a balance. Writing and everything connected to it became fun again. Thank heavens, because I honestly love it.

Does this mean I don't get stressed at times? Nope. The learning curves never stop, but I remind myself daily of what's important. My health first. Family. Then the stories.

For every action there is a reaction. We do not live in a vacuum. For every behavior there is a consequence. Our thoughts become our words, our words grow into our actions. Our lives are the sum total of our actions. Watch our thoughts, for they dictate our lives.

Consequences. They are inescapable.