I am immersed in the re-write of my book, finally figured out what to do with it. Spending too much time at the computer and I have the back and shoulders to prove it. But my mind is also swimming around in blogland (something like wetland), so I have to clear it. Well it's about mind, mindfulness.

Mindfulness: "a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique." I was surprised to find it in the online dictionary, because it's a hot word these days being tossed around by writers and thinkers. It makes me think of Henry James. He said "be one on whom nothing is wasted," reminding himself as a writer not to fritter away his time or his mind.

I had a minister's wife, one of my best friends when I was a teenager, whom I admired very much because she was the first writer I knew, writing against all odds - the odds being a demanding husband and two scoffing sons who never took her seriously, even after she had published two books to their surprise. She sent me a collection of aphorisms and recipes after I was married and in honour of my first pregnancy. Her advice was to "cherish the moments."

That's all-purpose. Bear it in mind.

You know that line from The Prophet (1923) by Kahlil Gibran (1883-1923) about children; it goes something like: "your children are arrows shot from yourselves. Do not try to make them like you; try instead to be like them. Something like that. Now I'll look it up....

You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.

Well, that's not great, but I had the right idea. Anyway, I'm talking about grandchildren. No way you can strive to make them like you (in both senses of the word). There are so many more genes went into their DNA that you're lucky if you see even a passing resemblance to you or your mate. But their achievements are a wholly gratuitous blessing. You had nothing to do with their accomplishments but you can be proud all the same. And very grateful.