September 5, 2011
Entering my 7th year of fatherhood I am becoming more and more concerned about this thing called sacrifice. I have been questioning what the word means exactly and how consumed should I be by my own daily sacrifices. I have been wondering to what extent, if any, should I allow the sacrifices that I make for my child to move me off of the path toward my dreams.
Sometimes I feel like I’m using parenthood as an excuse to not dive head first into my literary pursuits. I once read about the great writer Terry McMillan taking her infant son on road trips up and down the Pacific Coast while selling thousands of copies of the then selfpublished book Waiting to Exhale. Also the award-winning author Toni Morrison once admitted during an interview that on at least one occasion her baby son vomited on her manuscript while she was in the process of writing. She went on to say that she did not get upset nor did she throw the paper away, she just wrote around it.
My daughter is far from being a baby so I can’t say that she’s impeding my ambitions at all. I mean yes I am working, going to school, and trying to plan for her future but so what. I can’t let that be the reason why I don’t do all I can to share my gift with the world. The only person holding me back is myself. Now I just need to figure out how to get out of the way.
-YB
ghettosun 
When you figure it out, let me know. 😉
A good friend once said to me, “You have a gift and therefore a responsibility to share it.” (or something along those lines)
I get in my own way all the time. Reminding myself that many authors juggled families and careers while pursing the craft helps.
Stephen King’s autobiography, “On Writing” is very inspiring.
I will definitely let you know Julia, lol.
I find that in anything – life/love/improvement/work/art/etc…- it’s very easy to focus only on what MORE you could be doing. this is a decent way to keep yourself motivated, but without the effort to balance it you can easily become dismissive of your efforts.
look at where you want to be, but always keep an eye on where you’ve come from and where you’re at. Only then can you strike a balance between being happy with what you’ve done, accomplished with where you are but never satisfied with your progress.
OK and I suppose the lack of satisfaction is good in this particular instance.