Not Yet

Not yet. How often do we use those words? Sometimes they sound quite resigned, as we know it will happen, just not today. When we brought Goldie home, our Labrador puppy, she needed a bath. I expected that as a typical waterdog, she’d swim six lengths breaststroke around the bath and another five lengths backstroke, finishing off with a couple of butterfly strokes.

To my surprise, she was not impressed with baths or water at all, staring at me with the saddest puppy eyes imaginable. After several weeks, she is now happy to stick her front paws and nose in the kids’ tiny pool outside. When I mentioned this to others they said, “Not yet. It takes a while for them to get used to water.” Who knew?

Editing is another ‘not yet’. My first thought? How hard can it be to find wayward commas, spare exclamation marks and the odd misspelt word? Hard apparently, and although Onwards & Upwards did a fabulous job with Sapphire Beach, it definitely took longer and was way more complex than running a spellchecker or even Grammarly through the manuscript.

Some weeks, writing is like that too. “Have you finished the next chapter?” Although Goldie is as good as gold, and will usually sit and either play with her toys or sleep in the evening, I feel distracted by her. Tired as well, as she wakes up before my kids do and before what I call properly daytime.

With the death of my mother in law, getting a puppy, travelling to the Netherlands for a holiday and another birthday (today!), my laptop has only opened for book reviews, even though I took all my notes needed for book 3 of the Elabi Chronicles with me to the Netherlands, planning on writing twenty chapters or so. Maybe I should have had more chocolate sprinkles whilst over there...

Most mornings shivering out in the garden with a just-woken up puppy, it has been beautiful weather. Birds singing away, rather crossly from our garden as this puppy has reappeared, trying to stalk the blackbirds on the lawn. So amazing. But so much grief and sadness, hurt and anger. Not yet perfect. But reminders everywhere of the Lord of perfection, who holds all things together, who gives us tokens of what is not yet, but will be someday. 

It’s those tokens that are so good to write about, feeling the joy and blessings vicariously through the characters. It’s why my website is Vicarious Living, and once I manage to work whilst Goldie does her doggie thing, I will carry on working on my podcast as well. I love hearing other people’s way of living vicariously through songs, stories and poems.

What is your biggest Not Yet?

Maressa Mortimer is Dutch but lives in the beautiful Cotswolds, England with her husband and four (adopted) children. Maressa is a homeschool mum as well as a pastor’s wife, so her writing has to be done in the evening when peace and quiet descend on the house once more. She loves writing Christian fiction, as it’s a great way to explore faith in daily life. Because of her interest in writing, Maressa is part of Creativity Matters: Find Your Passion For Writing, an anthology encouraging people to write.

Her debut novel, Sapphire Beach, was published in December 2019, and her first self published novel, Walled City, came out in December 2020, followed by Viking Ferry, a novella. Beyond the Hills is the second book in the Elabi Chronicles, and was released in 2021, followed by stand-alone novel Burrowed, released in 2022. All of Maressa’s books are available from her website, www.vicarioushome.com, Amazon or local bookshops.