Where's Your Cherry Tree?

Hello Seekerville! Sharee Stover here, and I’m super excited to be with you all today. A lot has happened since last year when I visited as a Contest Diva. To be specific, in July I received THE CALL. You know the one…Author sends book, editor calls author offering a contract? Yep, that one! And it’s been a whirlwind ever since. As fabulous as it is living the dream, I haven’t stopped dreaming because over a hot cup of coffee or tea (no judgments here, whichever is your favorite is fine with me), I plan. I should mention plan is my middle name. Prior to July, I had a plan and it went something like this:

Write book
Get agent
Get book contract
Repeat
Yes, in that order. Instead my plan went more like this:
Write book
Respond to editor request for blurbs
Get book contract

See the missing component? That missing thing became my cherry tree. Please allow me to explain through a story. 

One spring afternoon my son and I chatted in the garage while he worked on his car, and a robin flew in through one of the open garage doors. The poor bird got flustered and kept trying to get out through the closed side window. I opened the other garage door to help Mr. Robin with his exit options. It didn’t work.

Even though we had two huge wide-open doors, he was determined to fly out through a closed window instead. Now, in all fairness, there was a cherry tree on the other side of the window. Perhaps Mr. Robin entered the garage with the cherry tree in his sights to begin with? I’m not sure, and he didn’t offer an explanation. 

Truthfully, I can’t blame the bird. The tree looked appealing and he was taking the shortest route. Mr. Robin’s focus on that tree had him undeterred, and no matter what we did to convince him the garage doors were a far better option, he remained target-locked on the tree on the other side of the window. Mr. Robin thunked against the glass a couple of times, and I knew he was going to break his neck if we didn’t intervene with more than pep talk. My son gently moved toward the bird so as not to scare the creature more. And the strangest thing happened. Up to that point, I’m not sure the bird realized we were there. He had a goal after all. It wasn’t until my son got closer that Mr. Robin acknowledged my son’s presence and refocused his attention. In an effort to get away from my son, Mr. Robin turned and what do you know? He spotted the open garage doors where his freedom beckoned on the other side.

Mr. Robin needed some help. He was headed toward the right thing, the tree was good for him, but he needed to change direction to get there. Once Mr. Robin got a new view, he saw the open door, and made his way out of the garage safely. Something about that day has stuck with me because I too have a cherry tree. The thing I’m target-locked on. Maybe you have it too? An agent? A book contract? Financial freedom from debt? A promotion? A baby? I think many of us have cherry trees and they can look very different, but the goal is the same, obtain the THING. 

I’ve been called a control freak, and it used to bother me. I’ve come to realize it’s rather accurate. I prefer to be in control because I hate being out of control or being under someone else’s control. So, if I’m in control, I’m not taken by surprise, hurt, disappointed, or anything else unpleasant. But control is an illusion, a state of mind that keeps us hidden behind the real problem…fear.

Are we afraid that we won’t get that thing? The agent? The book contract? The promotion? The baby? So, we face our fear with a take-control-pre-planning attitude, forgetting a huge part of the creative equation…God.

Problem is, it doesn’t take much faith when you’re controlling everything. Like Mr. Robin, I have my cherry tree, the thing I’m so focused on getting, and I forget that God might have another plan. He sees the whole picture, not just the tree on the other side of the window glass.

When I forget God is in this with me and my attention is supposed to be on Him, I get distracted and keep bonking my head against the window trying to get to my cherry tree. The more frustrated I get, the harder I try to control, and I end up exhausted, angry, on the edge of bitterness with a headache, and flat ready to give up.

Aren’t we all like that at times? We’re told to keep our eyes on the prize, go for goal, no pain no gain…so we keep pushing and aiming and going…and still we don’t attain the prize regardless of the best laid plans. Are we in the waiting room or going about it the wrong way?

Please know I’m all for giving your dreams one hundred percent of your effort. If you’re writing, don’t hold back. Dive in. Dig deep into the story. Absolutely, we need to be doing all those things, but a beautiful aspect of being human is that we have God’s help, if we want it. If we accept it. Just like my son was near Mr. Robin watching him wear his little feathers out, God is standing right there beside us, watching us wear ourselves out, and all the while waiting for us to say, we need Him. As soon as I refocus and remember He’s with me in the mission, He shows me the better way. The wide-open garage door I totally missed, because I was trying to do it my way.

I wish I could tell you that I don’t have those control issues anymore, but that’d be a lie. Especially when those things I’m trying to control are near and dear to my heart or involve the most vulnerable parts of my life. I’m learning after a lot of headaches from beating my head against the glass, that when I’m most frustrated, it’s probably because I need to refocus and listen for God’s instruction for the way He’s leading me.

Which brings me to my book, Secret Past, and my heroine, Katie Tribani. Katie has control issues when she learns the “truths” she’s believed her entire life are lies. Her world is torn apart by the loss of her mother, a handsome stranger, and the truths many people are telling her. She must decipher the truth from the lies before someone kills her. And like Katie, we’re too have a real enemy determined to destroy us, but we also have God’s truth leading us into freedom.

What about you? What’s your cherry tree? Have you struggled with trying to get to it? Or have you found a way to strive hard and achieve your goals? What would you say to someone you saw beating their head against the window?

Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for a copy of Secret Past!

 (Print copy for US only, Ebook for international).

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Colorado native Sharee Stover lives in Nebraska with her real-life-hero husband, three too-good-to-be-true children, and two ridiculously spoiled dogs. A self-proclaimed word nerd, she loves the power of the written word to ignite, transform, and restore. Her Christian romantic suspense stories combine heart-racing, nail-biting suspense and the delight of falling in love all in one.  

She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America and Nebraska Writer’s Guild. Sharee is a two-time Daphne du Maurier finalist and the winner of the 2017 Wisconsin Fabulous Five Silver Quill Award.

When she isn’t writing, she enjoys reading, crocheting and long walks with her obnoxiously lovable German Shepherd.

Visit her at www.shareestover.com

 

She’s not who she thinks she is

With gunmen at her doorstep, Katie Tribani learns her true identity. She’s been in witness protection since childhood, and now her crime-lord father has found her.  As bullets fly, US marshal Daniel Knight whisks her to safety—but not for long. Captured and held prisoner, only Katie can unearth her secret past…if she can survive long enough.