Last week Cassie had some more biopsies done. We think the problems that have popped up are related to her disease but just in case, we need to make sure. We had hoped to cut back her medication to every other day but suddenly the bumps came back. And then there’s the issue of her coat that never came in. At two years of age she still looks trapped in puppyhood with a stripe of adult fur down her back and her sides covered in not quite puppy fur but not the long guard hair that you would expect on a dog this age. So it was back to the vet who shaved her in about five spots and sent her home to wait out the results. She has stitches in various spots on her body, all easily accessible for licking and scratching and chewing.

I kept expecting her to chew at the stitches and dreaded the idea of having to put one of those collars on her but the only one who seemed to be worried about them was me. Cassie ignored the stitches as though they didn’t even exist. She’s been just fine all week, doing what she does best, without a wasting a single moment of fun time by worrying at those stitches.

How many times in our writing lives do we make mountains out of the proverbial molehill?

I don’t know about you but for me, I do it way to often. I think too much. I think too much before I write and after I write and while I write. I worry those words back and forth until I’m no longer sure what is fresh and original and what is just old and tired from me worrying on it so much.

One of the hard things that happens for some people (or at least for me) is that after we sell a piece of writing our minds are focused on the selling and not on being a writer, living the writer’s life, and well, just writing. Wouldn’t it be nice to not think so much?

Old habits are hard to break so I can’t say that I am going to let go of all that worrying all at once. But I am going to call myself on it more often.

Less time worrying will give me more time to write, and more time to play with Cassie.