I went to sleep troubled. A creative problem landed in my inbox that wanted solving. It was evening, just, and for a few waking hours before bed my head hummed with an insistent anxious frustration. How? How would my disappointment be reconciled?

My chapbook will be published soon. The cover design that was sent to me last night by my publisher isn't working for me. I need to like how it looks. I need to believe it's suitable. I want to love my cover design. At least, I do not want to think it's the right book with the wrong cover.

I slept fitfully and dreamed my publisher wrote me the next morning to say she had fired the designer. Problem solved? It was a lucid dream; I wasn't happy the designer was fired, but I knew now I'd get a second chance at the cover design.

Dreams don't solve problems. But I woke with clarity, commitment, and my declaration for 2017 - to cultivate an attitude of cheerful optimism. 

After my long walk in the woods and reflection, what I could see this morning so clearly is how all three of us, the designer, the publisher, and I were aiming at just the right cover design for my chapbook. I had my words. By noon, I had written my publisher with my thoughts, concerns, wishes and ideas about why the design doesn't work and how I thought it could be changed to be the chapbook cover to fit my poems, my prose, my vision. 

It was a wonderful process, because I see so much clearly what I need and why I need it and how I can share this honestly, with respect, with integrity, and with trust that I will take good care of my chapbook as I collaborate to bring it into the world to share.

All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar 2017