Everything Comes & Goes

By Mike Johnson

Everything comes & goes.

This morning, looking on a shelf, I noticed a book I wrote 30 years ago.

I'd totally forgotten it.

Yet I can remember how large it seemed to me at the time. Researching the content. Studying publishing options. Searching for a printer. Selecting the formatting & cover. Marketing the beast.

From a sales standpoint, it was a bust. From a learning experience it was a plus.

Today, I'd be embarrassed to see it distributed in public.

I'm glad it failed. It deserved to fail. We should all hope that the inferior falls away so the superior is easier to find.

Scanning a few pages, I detected the me I used to be.

Idealistic. Untested. Raw. In need of seasoning by experience.

It was a time capsule that held my first, best idea on how to earn money as a writer who had just quit his corporate job.

I deeply felt that somehow, writing would get me to my biggest dreams. I just didn't yet know the specifics of how that would happen.

That unknowing was a good thing because I had no idea how much experience would soon be landing on my head.

If we could see all that's required to gain that sparkling future, we might never chase.

But then again, we might. The time is going to pass anyway.

30 years later, how much better to say, "I'm glad I did," than "I wish I had."

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