Just Keep your head in the game.

Today, is one of those days where I need to remind myself to just keep swimming.

I feel the mixed feelings creeping in. I'm getting frustrated with revisions and trying to map out how I'm going to do it all.

I give myself permission to feel what I'm feeling.

I also remind myself of the bigger picture. There's a reason for what I'm doing. I'm wrestling with these ideas because there is an important message in the work I want to contribute.

So, I will press on.

I can't "set down on these steps cuz [I] finds it's kinder hard".

I will keep climbing.

* * *

My mom used to always recite this poem. Thank you Langston for your encouragement.

Mother to Son
BY LANGSTON HUGHES
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.