(Me sitting in front of the hoop house in the sun)

Did you know you could send people ‘book rentals’ via Amazon Kindle? I didn’t either. Until last week, that is. I received a book rental of a book titled “Turning Pro” by Steven Pressfield, who also wrote the book “The War of Art”.  It’s a short, interesting read that analyzes the mindset behind two groups of people: ‘amateurs’ and ‘professionals’. It explores the way people think and what motivates them in these two walks of life. As you might have guessed from the title, the book helps people change from the ‘amateur’ category to the ‘professional’ category.

I don’t want to spoil the book, but I do want to share a little piece of it:
“When we do the work for itself alone, our pursuit of a career (or a living or fame or wealth or notoriety) turns into something else, something loftier and nobler. Which we may have never even though about or aspired to in the beginning.
It turns into a practice.
(…) A practice implies engagement in a ritual. A practice may be defined as the dedicated, daily exercise of commitment, will and focused intention aimed, on one level, at the achievement of mastery in a field but, on a loftier level, intended to produce a communion with a power greater than ourselves – call it whatever you like: God, mind, soul, Self, the Muse, the super conscious.”

The book served as a much-needed reminder that writing is not about publication. It’s not about the income. It’s not about what I tell people when they ask me what I do.

I write for the love.
Or, at least, that’s when it’s best.