Today my focus has been on a labour of love. I have had a book manuscript to finalise for the last ten months. Finally I feel it’s finished!

I’ve been putting off completing my changes. In a way I’ve made this a hard labour. When I think back perhaps I could have got on with it a bit faster. Yet I’m also aware that the right energy is important. And me being in the right energy too. So it’s been an interesting pregnancy. This has reminded me very much of the actual pregnancy I had with my daughter. I found out I was expecting a baby very early on. Although I never wanted to know if the baby was a boy or a girl I had already settled on a girls name. A boy’s name was much harder to find. I took that as my sign. And I did have a girl.

However, knowing very early also meant I was counting the weeks. I suspect all mums wish the baby was born as soon as they find out they’re expecting. It’s too exciting and terrifying to want to wait seven or eight months. Then there is the uncertainty over dates. When exactly will this new being make an entrance. Added to all of the ways my body made me feel for those months. As my body changed and grew I felt movement, kicks and pushes. Still I had to wait through all these things. In the end even though I was fed up with being pregnant when the time came to get into the serious work of labour I was full of uncertainty. Yet curiously certain that everything would be well.

Today was my last push at this book. After what seems like weeks of labour – I’ve set completion dates in my planner since April – I decided that it had to be born.

I can’t wait any longer. There is another book pestering to be written. It seems I’m ready to enter another creative pregnancy. But it can’t begin because the first book is taking up mind space. So here I am after a day of re-reading, adding, cutting, rejigging and tidying. The manuscript has been emailed to my editor. It’s done. Off in the arms of the midwife who can steer it through these first hours and days. Taking it somewhere where it can get washed and cleaned and made pretty before it comes back to me as a published book. My creation is in the world and I can rest.

Oh, hang on a minute. I can feel book Two marching to the front of my brain. I’ve already done an outline – just to keep it quiet. But that may not be enough. I may have to start another labour of love sooner rather than later. Hopefully not as hard as the first effort. After all I have been working on my writing. The fourth Inspired 2 Write challenge ends tomorrow. A whole group of people who have been labouring to get their words out into the world. Who knows. One of them might be feeling the creative pangs of their first book. I hope so. Because being able to create is such a wonderful gift in all of us.

I feel that it’s only when we labour to create that we realise the gift we have been given. I love books. They are my gift from other mothers (and fathers, of course) to inspire my life. I’m looking forward to seeing if my baby creation can be an inspiration for someone too.

Day 586 of my blogging challenge