The Picture of Yielding

I've been thinking lately about my picture (that I never found, only in my mind) for the year. It is the wooden yoke with the winter morning sun blazing through it. The closest I found was the early summer morning photo in the Rose Garden at Buhl Park. I want to see the rising sun, more than the setting sun, although both are beautiful.
The yoke symbolized taking Jesus' yoke on me, allowing His plan to unfold. The rising sun proclaims an evident meaning of new beginnings.
So eight months into 2012, how do I think I'm doing with this image in my life? As with any journey, valleys and mountains, storms and detours distract the traveler. This has been of a bumpy year with health and family dips. Disappointments in my planning for my writing life piled up at times. Vacation time not approved for a writer's conference, money for conferences, a mistake published about a contest, ended up only being for non-fiction, not fiction as first advertized.
I patiently tell myself to wait till next year, when Mary Ellen finishes high school. I need and want to be available at every function I'm able to attend this senior year. I know this year can never be replaced.
The sponsors of the contest apologized for the misinformation. They direct the fiction writers to another contest that actually pays more than the false one. I feel God's hand. I take on the yoke.
Humans have such an independent bent. We want to do things our way. We want to be the self-made man(or woman). Taking on Jesus' yoke is surrender that changes life.

I'm learning. The picture grows into reality. Every day dawns with the hope and the proclamation of surrendering. The yoke is easy and light. The hard part is yielding.