Cupcakes and Writing: Lemon

Lemon: Overcoming Setbacks

I must admit I'm not a huge fan of lemon, but vanilla cupcakes with a hint of lemon are moist and delicious.  While lemons can be bitter, the cupcakes themselves are sweet.

There are a lot of things in life that can lead to bitterness.  It can become so consuming you lose all the vanilla and sugary sweetness of life.  To be honest, I've recently had several bitter-consuming weeks filled with set backs.  I had a pregnancy complication that has me on limited bed rest (no picking up heavy things, bending, twisting, or walking/standing longer than 20 minutes) and unable to take care of my son and home the way I want to.  I'm in one state, so my parents can help me care for our son, while my hubster is in another, packing up our stuff and cleaning our place for our move and I'm missing him while we're trying to make major life decisions and prepare for the next stage of our life as homeowners, parents of two, and relocating to a new state.  Then there was a problem with our contract on our new home that we're supposed to move into on Monday.  As if I'm not already feeling bad I can't help with the move (being nine months preggo and on limited bed rest), the stress of trying to get the moving situation resolved has not been fun.  And then, as if that wasn't enough, I received three form rejections on my manuscript in one week.  Needless to say, I haven't written much in a while, nor had the desire to.

That wasn't meant to be a rant.  Just to prove a point: we can sink into bitterness and let it overwhelm us, totally changing the flavor of our lives.  Or we can rise above all the negative things in life and keep going.  We can keep on revising and sending out query letters.  Keep on writing.  Keep on loving our kids the best we can and know how. Keep on living and dreaming and persevering and do the things that make us feel alive.  That's what I decided to do. 

Today I've written 550 words on my new manuscript.  I revised my query and sent it out to three more agents.  I've written this blog post.  We got a lot of the housing situation figured out and under control.  I got to spend more time snuggling with my son and reading to him then I would if I wasn't on limited bed rest.  And I'm feeling good about life again.  Excited about what will be happening in the next few weeks.

When life hands you lemons, make lemon cupcakes.  Bon appetit!

If you've missed any of the first seven Cupcakes and Writing posts in this series, you can find them in the archive here.