Poets & Writers is Under My Bed

Poets & Writers is under my bed. I saw it this morning when I put on my slippers. When the magazine arrived, I was determined to read at least one article that night regardless of the mountain of work I had to do. I fell asleep reading a piece about envy. I was envious of it too because I felt I could have written it. There have been numerous times when I read something and thought, That’s exactly what I feel and know.  What on earth is stopping me from writing the piece anyway?

This is really not the gist of the envy the author refers to. She’s talking about what happens when we see a writer who is similar to us in style and preparation get accolades and we do not have any. You start out seemingly at the same gate, but the other writer flies by you.

Because I am competitive by nature, I spend too much time worrying about what others are doing with their talents and not enough time sharpening my own, which could probably start with me pulling Poets & Writers out from under the bed and cracking it open and studying it.