Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But certainly maybe one day…soon.

Since I have started blogging, I have been taken back by the number of my readers who have told me that I should write a book. The reason that I am taken back is because that has been a lifelong dream of mine…almost a secret of sorts…and it feels odd to have others encourage me to do something that has lie dormant in my heart for a very long time…silently waiting to be unleashed one day. 

My youngest child will be entering full-time school in two years….and the perpetual question of “What’s next”? is starting to tug at my heart like a pesty dog napping at my ankles. My husband and I always assumed that I would return to work in some manner once I graduated from the rigors of Stay-at-Home Momhood:The Early Years. But what exactly should I do? Should I jump a leap of faith and take my photography business to the next level? Or should I play it safe and return to the realiablity of the nursing world. Just the thought of the latter makes me want to curl into a ball and puke…probably not a good idea then, huh? 

Or should I write a book? Somehow combine my photography with another medium? 

So many feelings of self-doubt plague my mind…which always seems to paralyze me from taking a risk. It is scary to do new things totally out of my comfort zone. I have been there once when I launched my little business and I know the fear and apprehension all too well. I almost have to close my eyes and just jump. Because if I look out at my unfamiliar horizon, I just stand there, shaking…and then retreat back into my world of safety and familiarity. 

When I was a graduating from high school, my uncle gave me a piece of advice that I quietly tucked away, but always continually mentally peek at. He flatly told me: Shelley, in life, you always have to have a five year plan. 

And so I set forth in doing just that…creating my five year plans. And when one five year period ended, a new one began.  I created a mental checklist and got to checking items off, slowly but methodically.

Earn my bachelor’s degree and become a nurse…check. Become a nurse practitioner…check. Get married and start a family…check. Create my own business…check.

Writing a book has always been on my checklist of life…but it has always been more in the “someday” category. Is that someday now? As in the next few years?

Do I enter a world that I know absolutely nothing about…only navigating through the murkiness of it all with a heart full of passion, vigor and faith?

Well, I did it once…who says I can’t do it again? Am I the only one standing in my way?

Step aside, self. I’ve got some check-listing to do.