Commitment Rewarded Ruth Smith Meyer

“It’s so nice to hear you read again,” Irene whispered after my bi-weekly reading at the Seniors Day Centre.  That comment warms my heart and verifies the value of my hour spent with five to eight participants.  Several of the faithful ones are extra thankful for my readings because they can no longer see well enough to read. They all enjoy the expression of my reading voice and the enthusiasm I portray.

Usually I start off with an inspirational clip I’ve gleaned from magazines or from the internet, or perhaps a few jokes or humourous stories. At first I used only short stories, pieces from old readers or whatever I could find that would be of interest to them.  I included some of my own writings and articles.  When they found out I had written books, they asked if I would read those to them too.  I was concerned that with reading only every other week, they wouldn’t remember where I left off. They soon nixed that misconception!  When I asked if they remembered where we left off, they were quite able to tell me. In fact when I lost my book mark one week, and by mistake started where I had read the time before, they soon let me know they had heard that before. 

Two or three chapters at a time, we read the entire book of Not Easily Broken.  They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the life of Ellie and her offspring.  I was going to give them a break and use other materials for a while, but they begged to start on the sequel right away.  Now we’re almost half way through Not Far from the Tree.

The whole experience is not only rewarding to me, but it teaches me over and over again that committing to a few minutes out of our busy schedules can bring such pleasure and satisfaction to others.

This past month has been busy!  With Out of the Ordinary off the press, I have had appearances scheduled over quite a large territory with several large audiences.  Probably the most satisfying one was at the Whitchurch-Stouffville Library.  Since it was close to where I spent the first thirty years of my life, I asked if they would like to host an author’s night to introduce my book to those in my home area.  I had no idea how many people would show up even though I had put the information on my website, facebook page and emailed some friends. Even an hour or two before the time to start, I wondered if many people would show up.  The librarian said she had set up thirty chairs which would be more than ample for the crowds they usually got for that kind of event. People started coming more than a half hour early and they kept coming, and coming.  More, then more chairs were brought in. At least eighty came —school friends from the primary grades to high school chums, neighbours, friends, church friends, relatives, people I knew and some I didn’t—it was almost overwhelming, but oh so gratifying and joyous!  The commitment to writing and going through the publishing process began to be worth it. 

That’s the way it is with commitment.  There’s usually some giving up of  other things we have done with our time, there’s some hard slugging, sometimes we’d like to quit, but if we keep on keeping on, continue the task through the hard or busy times, it comes rolling back with waves of blessing. 

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