What It Takes To Keep On Rhyming (A Post By Steve)

For those of you who have been following us for a while on our Facebook page , you'll know that I (Steve) have been trying to do a rhyme to end each day with.  As a musician and music teacher, I tend to always be thinking of and looking for different words and rhymes to use for lyrics.  So I figured that doing rhymes each day wouldn't be too difficult for me.  But the reality is,  after the first few weeks I started to find myself struggling to keep at it.  I found it difficult to get inspired.  I found that always doing the 'funtastical' rhymes didn't always fit with the mood I was in.  And so, I finally decided to just start doing poems of whatever would come to mind.  Some are thoughtful, some are fun, some are just plain dumb (ha, I made a rhyme and didn't even know it)!   But that's ok.  I'm sure the reality is that for every 100 rhymes I come up with, I may get one that really is good.  But the other thing for me is that if there is one that encourages you, or brings a smile to your face, then that rhyme is a success.

Too often I can tend to focus on the numbers.  I love stats and tend to follow our Facebook stats quite a bit.  It's easy to get caught up in the numbers and how many likes, comments, or shares I get on any one particular rhyme or post.  But why is that?  Why do the numbers represent success?   Which then makes me ask, what really is success?  Is success seeing lots of people saying how much they love what I'm doing?  Is success seeing money come in from our creative endeavours?  Or is success deeper than that?  Perhaps success is really just being able to do something we love, and bringing a smile to someone's face as we do it.  Perhaps success is the little things, not the big numbers.  For me, it encourages me to know that something I have written might have brightened someone's day.  Even if it's just for one, then that encourages me to keep on going, to keep on rhyming.  That's what keeps me going when I don't feel like sitting down and writing.  I love hearing your stories and comments of how you look forward to the bedtime rhymes each night.  I love knowing that in some way I have brought light to your day.

So I will continue to rhyme.  Some will be good, some will be not so good.  But each will be a success in their own way.  Even if the success is just the fact that I took the time to do the rhyme!  :)

Steve