CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhat I do recommend is walking in the fog, especially at night. There was something magical about a walk on a foggy night, when I could barely see 30 feet in front of me. But it was also easy to get disoriented, easy to lose my way. However, if I started in the right direction and put one foot in front of the other, my destination would emerge out of the fog like an apparition. It was difficult–and scary–to keep walking forward toward a destination I could not see, even though I knew it was there. I was always tempted to veer off to the side to see if I could find a familiar landmark, or to turn back and wait until my path was clearer. If I wanted to reach my destination, though, I needed to keep moving forward. Slowly. Carefully. But forward.<\/p>\n
We all have dreams. We all have goals. We all have destinations we desperately want to reach but that seem so far distant, so shrouded in the fog of uncertainty, that we aren’t even sure they are there. I want to publish a novel. You might want to run a marathon or finish college or buy a house. None of those things are easy. None are short-term. All require setting yourself on a path and putting one foot in front of the other day after week after month after year, even when the destination seems hopelessly distant. Even when you’ve lost sight of it entirely.<\/p>\n
And now we have\u00a0a<\/span> global pandemic that keeps us in our houses, keeps us afraid, and keeps us wondering if we’ll ever have a chance to do more than get up and get through. How long till marathons are a thing again? Till college classes can happen in person? Till we’ll recover economically enough to buy anything, let alone a house? <\/span><\/p>\nI don’t know. You don’t know. None of us knows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut here’s what I do know: those dreams, those destinations? They still exist. Never mind walking through fog. It feels like we are sailing through a hurricane, and many of us have been blown off-course.That professional editor I wanted to hire to help me prep my first novel for querying? Gonna have to wait on that, because I may get furloughed, and raises will be canceled, and…<\/p>\n
But on the other side of the huge waves and hulking clouds and sheeting rain, our destinations await us.<\/p>\n
For now, though, we exist in an in-between time, between the familiar, the old normal, and whatever will come after. And right now, that new normal is shrouded in some pretty thick fog.<\/p>\n
That phrase, in-between time, reminds me of a lovely novella by Diana Gabaldon called\u00a0The Space Between<\/em>. It’s set in the Outlander world and tells the story of Michael Murray and Joan MacKimmie, Jamie Fraser’s nephew and stepdaughter. Michael is grieving the death of his wife and recounts the advice he got from his brother Ian:<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s how ye do it,\u201d his brother Ian had told him, as they leant together on the rail of their mother\u2019s sheep pen, the winter\u2019s wind cold on their faces, waiting for their da to find his way through dying. \u201cYe find a way to live for that one more minute. And then another. And another.\u201d Ian had lost a wife,\u00a0too, and knew.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d wiped his face\u2014he could weep before Ian, while he couldn\u2019t with his elder brother or the girls, certainly not in front of his mother\u2014and asked, \u201cAnd it gets better after a time, is that what ye\u2019re telling me?\u201d His brother had looked at him straight on, the quiet in his eyes showing through the outlandish Mohawk tattoos. \u201cNo,\u201d he\u2019d said softly. \u201cBut after a time, ye find ye\u2019re in a different place than ye were. A different person than ye were. And then ye look about and see what\u2019s there with ye. Ye\u2019ll maybe find a use for yourself. That helps.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“Ye look about and see what\u2019s there with ye. Ye\u2019ll maybe find a use for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
That line has stuck with me since the first time I read this story, and it’s come back to me many times since the coronavirus lock-down started. And many times since it started, I’ve looked around to see what’s here with me, and usually I can find a use for myself. Each day I can take one step, however small, toward my dream. I hope you can, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in California, where every November and December, a layer of tule fog settles in. Sometimes it lifts during the day, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s so thick you can barely see the end of your car hood. That’s when you hope the road you’re on has those little raised bumps along the shoulder, so you can ride on them to guide you. We called that driving by Braille. 0\/10 Do Not Recommend. What I do recommend is walking in the fog, especially at night. There was something magical about a walk on a foggy night, when I could barely see 30 feet in front of me. But it was also easy to get disoriented, easy to lose my way. However, if I started in the right direction and put one foot in front of the other, my destination would emerge out of the fog like an apparition. It was difficult–and scary–to keep walking forward toward a destination I could not see, even though I knew it was there. I was always tempted to veer off to the side to see if I could find a familiar landmark, or to turn back and wait until my path was clearer. If I wanted to reach my destination, though, I needed to keep moving forward. Slowly. Carefully. But forward. We all have dreams. We all have goals. We all have destinations we desperately want to reach but that seem so far distant, so shrouded in the fog of uncertainty, that we aren’t even sure they are there. I want to publish a novel. You might want to run a marathon or finish college or buy a house. None of those things are easy. None are short-term. All require setting yourself on a path and putting one foot in front of the other day after week after month after year, even when the destination seems hopelessly distant. Even when you’ve lost sight of it entirely. And now we have\u00a0a global pandemic that keeps us in our houses, keeps us afraid, and keeps us wondering if we’ll ever have a chance to do more than get up and get through. How long till marathons are a thing again? Till college classes can happen in person? Till we’ll recover economically enough to buy anything, let alone a house? I don’t know. You don’t know. None of us knows.\u00a0 But here’s what I do know: those dreams, those destinations? They still exist. Never mind walking through fog. It feels like we are sailing through a hurricane, and many of us have been blown off-course.That professional editor I wanted to hire to help me prep my first novel for querying? Gonna have to wait on that, because I may get furloughed, and raises will be canceled, and… But on the other side of the huge waves and hulking clouds and sheeting rain, our destinations await us. For now, though, we exist in an in-between time, between the familiar, the old normal, and whatever will come after. And right now, that new normal is shrouded in some pretty thick fog. That phrase, in-between time, reminds me of a lovely novella by Diana Gabaldon called\u00a0The Space Between. It’s set in the Outlander world and tells the story of Michael Murray and Joan MacKimmie, Jamie Fraser’s nephew and stepdaughter. Michael is grieving the death of his wife and recounts the advice he got from his brother Ian: \u201cThat\u2019s how ye do it,\u201d his brother Ian had told him, as they leant together on the rail of their mother\u2019s sheep pen, the winter\u2019s wind cold on their faces, waiting for their da to find his way through dying. \u201cYe find a way to live for that one more minute. And then another. And another.\u201d Ian had lost a wife,\u00a0too, and knew. He\u2019d wiped his face\u2014he could weep before Ian, while he couldn\u2019t with his elder brother or the girls, certainly not in front of his mother\u2014and asked, \u201cAnd it gets better after a time, is that what ye\u2019re telling me?\u201d His brother had looked at him straight on, the quiet in his eyes showing through the outlandish Mohawk tattoos. \u201cNo,\u201d he\u2019d said softly. \u201cBut after a time, ye find ye\u2019re in a different place than ye were. A different person than ye were. And then ye look about and see what\u2019s there with ye. Ye\u2019ll maybe find a use for yourself. That helps.\u201d “Ye look about and see what\u2019s there with ye. Ye\u2019ll maybe find a use for yourself.\u201d That line has stuck with me since the first time I read this story, and it’s come back to me many times since the coronavirus lock-down started. And many times since it started, I’ve looked around to see what’s here with me, and usually I can find a use for myself. Each day I can take one step, however small, toward my dream. I hope you can, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13,17],"tags":[37,129],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-to-z-challenge-2020","category-personal","category-productivity","tag-atozchallenge","tag-tule-fog"],"yoast_head":"\n
P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge) - Janet Alcorn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge) - Janet Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in California, where every November and December, a layer of tule fog settles in. Sometimes it lifts during the day, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s so thick you can barely see the end of your car hood. That’s when you hope the road you’re on has those little raised bumps along the shoulder, so you can ride on them to guide you. We called that driving by Braille. 0\/10 Do Not Recommend. What I do recommend is walking in the fog, especially at night. There was something magical about a walk on a foggy night, when I could barely see 30 feet in front of me. But it was also easy to get disoriented, easy to lose my way. However, if I started in the right direction and put one foot in front of the other, my destination would emerge out of the fog like an apparition. It was difficult–and scary–to keep walking forward toward a destination I could not see, even though I knew it was there. I was always tempted to veer off to the side to see if I could find a familiar landmark, or to turn back and wait until my path was clearer. If I wanted to reach my destination, though, I needed to keep moving forward. Slowly. Carefully. But forward. We all have dreams. We all have goals. We all have destinations we desperately want to reach but that seem so far distant, so shrouded in the fog of uncertainty, that we aren’t even sure they are there. I want to publish a novel. You might want to run a marathon or finish college or buy a house. None of those things are easy. None are short-term. All require setting yourself on a path and putting one foot in front of the other day after week after month after year, even when the destination seems hopelessly distant. Even when you’ve lost sight of it entirely. And now we have\u00a0a global pandemic that keeps us in our houses, keeps us afraid, and keeps us wondering if we’ll ever have a chance to do more than get up and get through. How long till marathons are a thing again? Till college classes can happen in person? Till we’ll recover economically enough to buy anything, let alone a house? I don’t know. You don’t know. None of us knows.\u00a0 But here’s what I do know: those dreams, those destinations? They still exist. Never mind walking through fog. It feels like we are sailing through a hurricane, and many of us have been blown off-course.That professional editor I wanted to hire to help me prep my first novel for querying? Gonna have to wait on that, because I may get furloughed, and raises will be canceled, and… But on the other side of the huge waves and hulking clouds and sheeting rain, our destinations await us. For now, though, we exist in an in-between time, between the familiar, the old normal, and whatever will come after. And right now, that new normal is shrouded in some pretty thick fog. That phrase, in-between time, reminds me of a lovely novella by Diana Gabaldon called\u00a0The Space Between. It’s set in the Outlander world and tells the story of Michael Murray and Joan MacKimmie, Jamie Fraser’s nephew and stepdaughter. Michael is grieving the death of his wife and recounts the advice he got from his brother Ian: \u201cThat\u2019s how ye do it,\u201d his brother Ian had told him, as they leant together on the rail of their mother\u2019s sheep pen, the winter\u2019s wind cold on their faces, waiting for their da to find his way through dying. \u201cYe find a way to live for that one more minute. And then another. And another.\u201d Ian had lost a wife,\u00a0too, and knew. He\u2019d wiped his face\u2014he could weep before Ian, while he couldn\u2019t with his elder brother or the girls, certainly not in front of his mother\u2014and asked, \u201cAnd it gets better after a time, is that what ye\u2019re telling me?\u201d His brother had looked at him straight on, the quiet in his eyes showing through the outlandish Mohawk tattoos. \u201cNo,\u201d he\u2019d said softly. \u201cBut after a time, ye find ye\u2019re in a different place than ye were. A different person than ye were. And then ye look about and see what\u2019s there with ye. Ye\u2019ll maybe find a use for yourself. That helps.\u201d “Ye look about and see what\u2019s there with ye. Ye\u2019ll maybe find a use for yourself.\u201d That line has stuck with me since the first time I read this story, and it’s come back to me many times since the coronavirus lock-down started. And many times since it started, I’ve looked around to see what’s here with me, and usually I can find a use for myself. Each day I can take one step, however small, toward my dream. I hope you can, too.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Janet Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-22T04:16:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/p2020.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Janet Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Janet Alcorn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Janet Alcorn\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1aac50de576bdaf0779748da66890dfa\"},\"headline\":\"P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge)\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-22T04:16:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":883,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1aac50de576bdaf0779748da66890dfa\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/p2020.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AtoZChallenge\",\"tule fog\"],\"articleSection\":[\"A to Z Challenge 2020\",\"Personal\",\"Personal Development and Productivity\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/\",\"name\":\"P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge) - Janet Alcorn\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/p2020.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-22T04:16:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/p2020.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/p2020.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1\",\"width\":200,\"height\":200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/21\\\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/\",\"name\":\"Janet Alcorn\",\"description\":\"Suspense | Horror | Romance\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1aac50de576bdaf0779748da66890dfa\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1aac50de576bdaf0779748da66890dfa\",\"name\":\"Janet Alcorn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/12\\\/Janet-Alcorn-logo.png?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/12\\\/Janet-Alcorn-logo.png?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/12\\\/Janet-Alcorn-logo.png?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1\",\"width\":500,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"Janet Alcorn\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/janetalcorn.com\\\/staging\\\/1364\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/12\\\/Janet-Alcorn-logo.png?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge) - Janet Alcorn","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge) - Janet Alcorn","og_description":"I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in California, where every November and December, a layer of tule fog settles in. Sometimes it lifts during the day, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s so thick you can barely see the end of your car hood. That’s when you hope the road you’re on has those little raised bumps along the shoulder, so you can ride on them to guide you. We called that driving by Braille. 0\/10 Do Not Recommend. What I do recommend is walking in the fog, especially at night. There was something magical about a walk on a foggy night, when I could barely see 30 feet in front of me. But it was also easy to get disoriented, easy to lose my way. However, if I started in the right direction and put one foot in front of the other, my destination would emerge out of the fog like an apparition. It was difficult–and scary–to keep walking forward toward a destination I could not see, even though I knew it was there. I was always tempted to veer off to the side to see if I could find a familiar landmark, or to turn back and wait until my path was clearer. If I wanted to reach my destination, though, I needed to keep moving forward. Slowly. Carefully. But forward. We all have dreams. We all have goals. We all have destinations we desperately want to reach but that seem so far distant, so shrouded in the fog of uncertainty, that we aren’t even sure they are there. I want to publish a novel. You might want to run a marathon or finish college or buy a house. None of those things are easy. None are short-term. All require setting yourself on a path and putting one foot in front of the other day after week after month after year, even when the destination seems hopelessly distant. Even when you’ve lost sight of it entirely. And now we have\u00a0a global pandemic that keeps us in our houses, keeps us afraid, and keeps us wondering if we’ll ever have a chance to do more than get up and get through. How long till marathons are a thing again? Till college classes can happen in person? Till we’ll recover economically enough to buy anything, let alone a house? I don’t know. You don’t know. None of us knows.\u00a0 But here’s what I do know: those dreams, those destinations? They still exist. Never mind walking through fog. It feels like we are sailing through a hurricane, and many of us have been blown off-course.That professional editor I wanted to hire to help me prep my first novel for querying? Gonna have to wait on that, because I may get furloughed, and raises will be canceled, and… But on the other side of the huge waves and hulking clouds and sheeting rain, our destinations await us. For now, though, we exist in an in-between time, between the familiar, the old normal, and whatever will come after. And right now, that new normal is shrouded in some pretty thick fog. That phrase, in-between time, reminds me of a lovely novella by Diana Gabaldon called\u00a0The Space Between. It’s set in the Outlander world and tells the story of Michael Murray and Joan MacKimmie, Jamie Fraser’s nephew and stepdaughter. Michael is grieving the death of his wife and recounts the advice he got from his brother Ian: \u201cThat\u2019s how ye do it,\u201d his brother Ian had told him, as they leant together on the rail of their mother\u2019s sheep pen, the winter\u2019s wind cold on their faces, waiting for their da to find his way through dying. \u201cYe find a way to live for that one more minute. And then another. And another.\u201d Ian had lost a wife,\u00a0too, and knew. He\u2019d wiped his face\u2014he could weep before Ian, while he couldn\u2019t with his elder brother or the girls, certainly not in front of his mother\u2014and asked, \u201cAnd it gets better after a time, is that what ye\u2019re telling me?\u201d His brother had looked at him straight on, the quiet in his eyes showing through the outlandish Mohawk tattoos. \u201cNo,\u201d he\u2019d said softly. \u201cBut after a time, ye find ye\u2019re in a different place than ye were. A different person than ye were. And then ye look about and see what\u2019s there with ye. Ye\u2019ll maybe find a use for yourself. That helps.\u201d “Ye look about and see what\u2019s there with ye. Ye\u2019ll maybe find a use for yourself.\u201d That line has stuck with me since the first time I read this story, and it’s come back to me many times since the coronavirus lock-down started. And many times since it started, I’ve looked around to see what’s here with me, and usually I can find a use for myself. Each day I can take one step, however small, toward my dream. I hope you can, too.","og_url":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/","og_site_name":"Janet Alcorn","article_published_time":"2020-04-22T04:16:50+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/p2020.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Janet Alcorn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Janet Alcorn","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/"},"author":{"name":"Janet Alcorn","@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/#\/schema\/person\/1aac50de576bdaf0779748da66890dfa"},"headline":"P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge)","datePublished":"2020-04-22T04:16:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/"},"wordCount":883,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/#\/schema\/person\/1aac50de576bdaf0779748da66890dfa"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/p2020.jpg","keywords":["AtoZChallenge","tule fog"],"articleSection":["A to Z Challenge 2020","Personal","Personal Development and Productivity"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/","url":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/","name":"P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge) - Janet Alcorn","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/p2020.jpg","datePublished":"2020-04-22T04:16:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/p2020.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/p2020.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1","width":200,"height":200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/21\/p-is-for-patience-and-persistence-atozchallenge\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"P is for Patience and Persistence (#AtoZChallenge)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/#website","url":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/","name":"Janet Alcorn","description":"Suspense | Horror | Romance","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/#\/schema\/person\/1aac50de576bdaf0779748da66890dfa"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/#\/schema\/person\/1aac50de576bdaf0779748da66890dfa","name":"Janet Alcorn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Janet-Alcorn-logo.png?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Janet-Alcorn-logo.png?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Janet-Alcorn-logo.png?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Janet Alcorn"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Janet-Alcorn-logo.png?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"P2020\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/p2020.jpg?resize=114%2C114&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"Dense](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Dense_Tule_fog_in_Bakersfield,_California.jpg\")
<\/a>