Done Enough for Now

The house is now in good enough shape that I had a realtor come to look at it last night; I think I can say that it's in sellable condition as a "rare opportunity for a fixer-upper in a desirable neighborhood." Much more remains to be done: trying to sell surplus furniture on Craigslist, researching storage facilities for the stuff we'll be keeping, and more. But for now, enough is enough, and I'm ready to pronounce this project done for now. "Done for now" is often the best we can do.

Books are the same way. We write them the best we can, and we know there is more that can be done and needs to be done to make them better, but we simply can't proceed any further at this point. We need input from critique group members, or from an editor, or we need the sheer passage of time to give us some distance on the book and let us have a fresh perspective. Heck, we just need to REST.

I'm going to call Western Disposal and have the dumpster not only emptied - for the seventh time? the eighth? - but have it hauled away. I may need it again, for furniture that simply can't be sold and will have to be discarded, but I can't face those decisions right now. Right now I want to see that dumpster GONE, and I want to close the door of the house and not open it again for several weeks, weeks spent reading manuscripts, teaching classes, maybe even writing something of my own. I want to get out my little notebook and list as one of my "nice things and accomplishments" for June: Briarwood house cleaned out, cleaned up, and ready for sale.

It's done enough, for now.