Taking the bait

The carrot at the end of the stick. The gold at the end of the rainbow. You know: the thing that keeps you going when you’re stressed and tired and want to do anything, everything but what you know you should be doing. It’s the thing — what thing? what dream? — that keeps you going when things get hard, when throwing up your hands or closing your eyes to the inevitable is, well, inevitable. I’m working on my carrots these days. Sowing them in deep, dark rows. Feeding them with coffee grounds and onion skins. Hovering over them when the days are frosty and snow threatens. (Do you have your own patch, sown in your own backyard? Do you believe in them, especially when you can’t see them?)