Friday, October 13, 2006

Thank God for Oranges

I was walking to the community mailbox today, which I rarely do nowadays because mail is evil if I’m not waiting for a publisher’s reply to a manuscript, and I passed my favorite orange tree. I love this particular orange tree because it hangs over the street, and it smells amazing in the spring when the orange blossoms bloom—makes me want to get the mail. Anyway, I was frustrated because I’m waiting until December—probably late December—for my novel’s publication date, waiting for our house to sell so we can actually have money and my stomach acid can stop boring a hold in my intestines, waiting to make any appointments with radio/TV/newspapers/schools, etc. because my novel is not yet published, wishing my novel would be published in time for the conference I’m speaking at in November—which it won’t be, waiting for Greg and his boss to figure out their future business plans so I’ll know whether we’ll have health insurance for a while or whether we need to scout it out come December when Greg starts his own business, and being mad at God because I’m trying to finish my sequel and I can’t ever give it enough time because I have to work, etc., etc., etc. (Going to bed at 4:00 am twice in a row is not good for my psyche.)

So I stared at my favorite orange tree, and I noticed its green oranges that had yet to ripen. One had fallen to the ground and turned yellowish-orange, but I knew it wouldn’t taste good. It hadn’t hung on the tree long enough. I started thinking. The oranges wouldn’t be ready until winter, and if I took them off the tree too soon, they wouldn’t taste as good as they would if I waited until they were ripe. Then I realized that the oranges on that tree had actually been incubating since spring when the orange blossoms appeared. Everything the oranges needed to be oranges was right there in the blossom during the spring, but the oranges still needed time to become ripe, succulent, and sweet. Mess with the timing, and the orange wouldn’t be as sweet. As I looked at those oranges, I realized that God is letting my novel (and the rest of my life) ripen, not because He wants to be mean, but because He wants my novel and my life to be as sweet as possible.

For more information on my debut novel, A Prophecy Forgotten, check out my website at http://www.elysianchronicles.com

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