I’d tell you what I spent my day doing, but you really don’t want to know. No, you don’t. You’d run screaming, trust me.

It’s a word no one likes.

So, let’s talk about something more fun, shall we?

No, it wasn’t writing. No, it wasn’t painting. No, (sigh) it wasn’t narrating. I said I wasn’t going to say.

All right, all ready. It was taxes.

See, now I’ve sent you running screaming.

I like doing my taxes. I like understanding my business at that level. I believe every business owner should. Yes, the good ones do. It’s no different than summing up the card after bowling or golf. A tax return is the reconciliation for your year, it’s the summing tally of your scorecard.

Yeah, my dog just snorted hard on my ankle. It’s all wet now. No one likes talking about taxes.

This year was hard because I’ve done my taxes on professional software for so long and I knew I’d have to enter everything all over again. Ugh! But I’ve been feeling the itch to get it done — not surprising considering how many years I prepared returns for others. I always had the pressure to finish mine, even though I’d been working on it all along, as we got up against the deadline. I wonder if that will ever go away. Actually, I’ve sworn to myself that next year will be different. Mostly because I had to make a decision today about how to get the returns done for myself and my kids. With that done, I won’t have the fear that I did about filing this year.

I still have more pieces to do (which is why I had to work on it slowly during previous tax seasons) and then to review it. A ways to go still. But most of it is in.

Yeah, I don’t enjoy everything about it.

But it must be done.

Then I can go back to focusing on what I love — the stories.

Blessings.