The Hill

When I was in Mrs. Jones's Kindergarten at age four, there was a playground with a huge hill. We had trikes that we could ride down the hill. For weeks I was afraid, but one day I tried it and then, because it was so much fun, did it again and again whenever it was my turn each day.

As an adult passing the house where the kindergarten had been, I stopped to look at the scary hill. It was only a gentle slope.

That hill is a metaphor for my life. When faced with a new project, fear is followed by discovery that I can do it and satisfaction at completion.

Right now I am facing a big, big hill. I am writing a creative non-fiction work about abortion prior to Roe v. Wade making it legal.

As I organize and reorganize all of it, ideas of how to structure the book, are beginning to form. My subject folders and to-do lists are growing. I've even been able to write three chapters while I continue to search.

BUT...

...every time I find information I've been seeking, ten more pieces pop up. The hill is becoming a mountainette.

This is a much harder climb than my novels. www.donnalanenelson.com ever were, much harder than all the journalistic writing I've done.

The book will be called Coat Hangers and Knitting Needles, based on methods used by women to self-abort before abortion was legal.

The goal is to send it to those who want to change the laws to show that making abortion illegal will only increase the deaths of mothers along with babies. Abortion will never be stopped. Women who want abortions, will find a way.

So much better to offer birth control alternatives before there is a need.

As for that hill...I've my climbing equipment and ready to continue.