A Cup of Cocoa

during those 'awful wonderful early days..' (A few thoughts for fellow graduates / interns.)

I read this article by Al Kennedy, called 'The Best Gift for a Writer is a Good Reader and a cup of cocoa;' I found it very comforting, not that I am trying to build my career as a writer - but I am trying to build my career. So I have picked out the universal sentiments from the article which everyone might appreciate...

I particularly wish to highlight his mention of the tender solace of a cup of cocoa. For just one moment, in between the restless feelings and the erosion of your soul; the ritual of making a cup of cocoa, or indeed making it for someone else, is a reassuring little lighthouse, beaming hope.

Above all else; it's nice to know you're not the first to battle through those frightful hours when you wake up, wide eyed, at 5.30am and ask 'what in the name of sanity am I doing!?' - And, you certainly won't be the last.


'I was more often disappointed than not, but I was also learning that I cared about this. I cared so much that I would start again after every sad envelope flopped in, write something else, forget that it hurt to be knocked back.'

'You're flinging out the best love letters you can, you're breaking your heart and no one's answering, but on you go regardless –'


And of course, a wonderful sentiment for when you are feeling sick with anxiety:
'...he read my material while I felt nauseous. Then he showed me how to make cocoa. Thinking back on it, making cocoa is probably all he could think of to do with someone who was clearly a ball of pure tension and liable to cry, if not faint, at any moment.'

(The image is linked, read the full article here, at The Guardian online.)