Cutting Through Solid Rock

“The samech mem would love to get his hands on this”, a friend warned me last month; reminding me to make backup copies of my book.

Although I have copies saved in online storage, the thought of losing more than a year’s work was enough to give me pause and nudge me to go out and buy a thumb drive to save another copy on. I simply couldn't imagine what I would do if I lost everything at this point.

As I continue making slow but steady progress with my book, I have observed that each step is now becoming exponentially more difficult. I have an internal schedule of how I would like things to progress, yet it seems as if my schedule is constantly being thrown out the window. On numerous occasions when I sit down to work on a new section or edit existing sections, I am overcome with a lethargy that I hadn't felt up to that point. I am forced to summon up all my internal reserves in order to continue on and cast the lethargic feelings aside. More times than naught, I am successful.

Yet, it remains a daily battle.

In order to keep the long range nature of my book project in perspective, I recall the following advice from another friend,

“Hashem wants the book to come out at a specific time; He may have you working on it slowly for lots of reasons, such as learning and experiencing many things that the book needs that you don't have yet.”