Eyes to see....

Three of my sons and I spent most of the day yesterday at the optometrist. Two of my sons had appointments. The 16 year old appointment went as planned; exam pick out glasses and pay co-pays. The four year old was another story. When they put the drops in his eyes to dilate them he squeezed his eyes shut and then he couldn’t open them; he stretched his face sooooo long but his eyes wouldn’t open. It was so funny, we were all laughing there in the exam room.

When we went to choose glasses he grabbed this pair of Barbie light blue glasses that were obviously for a girl. He wanted blue glasses and wouldn’t budge until I put a pair of black ones on him. Then he wanted black. A few minutes later he wanted blue ones again. I honestly thought it would be harder for my 16 year old to choose glasses than my four year old. We finally ordered a pair of blue glasses with red on the inside and we were both happy.

Last night I went to a stake Relief Society diner and program, I couldn’t eat the dinner, with my food allergies, I usually can’t. The women who performed were good, it just isn’t my type of preferred entertainment. But there was one part that jarred me to full attention and that thought pervaded my thoughts the rest of the night. We stood as a group and recited the RS declaration. It wasn’t the group or their intentions that caught my attention, but a word.(of course me being a writer) The Relief Society declaration states that “We are women of faith, virtue, vision, and charity.” Vision is the word that struck me, a voice in my head asked me “do you have Vision…”

The eyeglasses incident and that question has made me think deeply for the last few hours. In my writing exercises with my friend one of her characters, who is blind, said “you don’t have to see to have vision.” Surely sight and vision are different things. We see things all the time…. But do we use vision in our lives often enough?
I am a writer; I have written and edited thousands of pages. While publishing my books is a huge dream of mine it isn’t my solitary goal. I write because I love to write. I love filling clean white pages with things from my head. The Vision of black letters on a clean white page fills me with satisfaction. If I never get published I still have these wonderful stories to share with family and friends.
So… if you aren’t focused on publishing as your primary goal then why submit at all? You ask.

Because I have vision,

“I do have Vision.” I told that voice in my head, last night. I have seen my books in the book store all seven of them lined up together. I have seen the black spines with electric blue lettering. My Vision tells me that I am on the right path for me.

Yes I have Vision, and that Vision will see Dominion Day published…