"Always believe that tomorrow is your day." -Billy Wilder

Lately at loggerheads with my professional life, I've grown weary of meeting the myriad daily challenges, constantly raising my fists to knock them down -- or at least redirect them. Hellbent on finding solutions to problems massive and minute, I had a small epiphany in the car tonight, on my way to dinner with dear girlfriend Christine, her honey Matt and her Boston bro' Steven. A thought that maybe there's a sea change at hand, and I just have to watch the tides; that there's little else to be done when they pull but ride them. That there's something I'm not seeing because my vision is blurred or obstructed by what I think I should see. That it's time to be the listener in the ongoing conversation with The Universe.

There were a few phone messages when I got home from our little Thai meal; one from my mother, just checking in, telling me she loves me, wanting to know how I'm doing. Sometimes I opt not to immediately return her call while I'm particularly vexed and perturbed; why upset her when there's nothing she can do?

Ah, but I mustn't underestimate Mom's powers -- for tonight, she came through, as good moms do when they're allowed to do their motherly job. As I tentatively, then wholeheartedly, spilled my current anxieties, Mom kindly and firmly offered the above-quoted wisdom, from one of our favorite film directors -- a little man whom she used to see quite often when she worked in Beverly Hills. Although it smacks of Scarlett O'Hara, it sounds more like a determined immigrant whose belief undoubtedly came out of his own difficult life experiences. Whose ultimate success was realized out of the understanding that he'd earned it. That tomorrow was his day. And all those tomorrows add up.

Several months ago, Mom found a wise way of giving me perspective on my temporary financial state vs. my capacity for right livelihood by quoting producer Mike Todd: "I've been broke, but I've never been poor."

I love having a mom who makes her daughter feel better by quoting great filmmakers.