The Good, the Bad and the Not-So-Great

My beloved mama made another trip to the Emergency Room today; that’s the Bad and the Not-So-Great.  The Good is, she’s back at home.  I’ll be checking in on her first thing tomorrow morning, before the weekly Weight Watchers meeting.  (The Bad.)  I had a routine appointment with my doctor this morning, so I know my weight has gone up.  Drat!  On the other hand, there’s something very empowering about knowing where you are and what you need to do to get to a better place—if that’s in the Big Guy’s plan, that is.  
This morning, I listened to a TED talk, one of my favorite things to do, and I found a real nugget of information: Invest in the process, not the outcome.  The desired outcome, the goal, is only valuable insofar as it helps one to set a direction.  
How many of us really do that, as a matter of course?  Just do our best, I mean, and let things shake out?  Not this cowgirl, I’m sad to say.  I look at the goal, the end result, and if it doesn’t happen just the way I envisioned it, I (not always but too often) believe I’m a failure.  And yet, truthfully, the thing I love most about writing is…writing!  Royalty checks, bestseller lists and good reviews are all very well, don’t get me wrong.  But I agree with the TED speaker: we have only limited control over our actions and absolutely none over the way things turn out.  Now, I’m asking myself why I fret over things that I can’t control.  It’s the process I really love–creating characters, coming up with a setting, making up a whole world as I go along.  For me and, I think, for most writers, that’s where the rubber meets the road.  Seems like a good idea to focus my energies and talents on the stories themselves, not the prizes I may or may not win.  This is another of those things I thought I already knew–and didn’t.  ( PLUG INTO YOUR HARD-WIRED HAPPINESS, Srikumar Rao.  Look on Audible.com’s ‘channels’ for TED talks and you’ll find it.)
I found another jewel in Marianne Williamson’s book, TEARS TO TRIUMPH, previously mentioned, a prayer: Make my mind an open channel for right thinking.  I love that so much!  Since I hit a wrong key, you’re probably going to get a mixed-up version if you subscribe.  Check out www.lindalaelmiller.com for the corrected one.
In closing, another question.  What inspires you?