I remember watching him pick up and skip stones across the surface of the water as we walked along the river's edge. I wanted to do that--wanted to learn--and he promised to teach me one summer, a long time ago.
He kept the promise and I watched and listened well.He showed me which stones to look for--small, smooth and rounded--ones I could easily hold in my hand. Soon it was easy for me to spot them. I picked them up, looked at the shape and felt the weight within my hand.
Next he showed me how to grip the stone--between my index finger and thumb--while letting the stone rest on my middle finger for balance. I practiced the grip until it felt comfortable and I had control.
I watched him throw stone after stone, following with my eyes, as each one skipped lightly across the surface of the water. Concentric ripples fanned out from each place the stone touched--then touched and skipped again--until finally it slipped beneath the water.
He showed me how to throw the stone--sidearm, low and parallel to the water's surface--releasing with a snap of my wrist, giving it horizontal spin from my index finger as it left my hand. Thrown perfectly, a stone can skip along the surface five, six, maybe seven or eight times. I remember counting his skips and wondering if we would ever be counting mine.
Each time we walked and talked...I practiced. At first, my stones hit the water and sank. Again and again I threw stones out--checking and correcting my grip and launch technique--remembering his words, his instructions and his example.
I began to believe it was possible. I could do this. I would do this.
And one day it happened. I skipped my very first stone along the banks of the Mississippi River. I don't remember the date, or the time or even the exact place, but even to this very day...I remember the feeling. Joy. I felt joy that welled from deep within. The joy of accomplishment in learning something new, something I would share with others through out my life.
Everything in life starts with a goal, a desire, a dream--followed by hard work, practice and determination to succeed--with a little luck thrown in for good measure.
As a child, I learned never to give up...never to give in. We never know who or where the ripples we send out into the world will touch or when they will come back full circle to touch our lives once again.
Desire...direction...determination...success!
Cheryl Gillmore
Read more by CL Gillmore at www.clgillmore.com
Award winning novelist and poet, C. L. Gillmore is a retired special education teacher. She holds a Bachelor of Education degree in both Elementary and Special Education with graduate endorsements in Early Childhood Education and Learning Disabilities. After more than 25 years in education she decided to pursue her passion for writing as a full time career.
“Writing has always been an important part of my life. My second grade teacher was a big influence,” Gillmore says. “She was instructive and encouraging and made me love putting my thoughts on paper.”
In the past two and half years, Gillmore wrote and published the social media based romance novel, Uncommon Bond, the first of a two-part series about Rose and Jake, who marvel at the kind of love that only comes along twice in a modern lifetime: the first time in person, the second via technology.
Uncommon Bond has been nominated for TWO 2012 Global eBook Awards: Best Romance Fiction Contemporary and Best eBook Trailer and was a finalist in the romance category for the 2012 National Indie Excellence Awards.
In addition, Gillmore wrote and published Of Roots, Shoes and Rhymes, a poetry book and audio CD. The collection of 28 poems covers her life experiences from pain in childhood through the true friendships of young adulthood to a career in service to the most special kinds of children. Some of the poetry in this collection also appears in the novel Uncommon Bond.
Of Roots Shoes and Rhymes won BOTH the Arizona Author’s Association 2011 Literary Award for published non-fiction and the poetry category in the National Indie Excellence Awards for 2012.
A transplant from Muscatine, Iowa, C. L. Gillmore resides in Surprise, Arizona with her husband, Mike. They have two married sons and five grandchildren who live nearby. They share their home with a French bulldog named Pitty Pat and an English bulldog named Gracie Belle.