So I opened my laptop this morning and found that the battery was nearly dead. The power cord wasn’t in its usual spot and as I started looking for it I realized, with a sinking feeling, that I must have left it at my mom’s house over the weekend—three hours away.
While I was trying to work out how to replace it before a client call, my phone died.
As I sit at my desk in Chicago, it seems surreal that less than twenty-four hours ago I was on a Florida beach with a rainbow stretched over my head. Actually, it was the second rainbow to grace me in three days, but when it comes to rainbows, you don’t count them, you simply stop what you’re doing and stare.
A rainbow moment is a right-brain moment, a burst of color and creativity from a higher realm.
I was standing at my kitchen sink this morning, washing dishes and looking at an affirmation card I have stuck on my refrigerator that says the givingness of life never leaves me. It got me thinking.
First, I wondered, is “givingness” even a word? I looked it up and yes, it is, except in the Scrabble dictionary. I’m not sure what the Hasbro company has against givingness, but the more I focus on it, the happier I feel.
If you and I are connected on Facebook, you may have seen the post about my recent book signing at the Barnes & Noble in my hometown of Holland, Michigan. I shared a photo of the friends and family who came out and wrote, “You know that feeling you get when you bare it all in a memoir and your family not only still speaks to you, but applauds you…? Yeah, that.”
Happy Holidays! I receive regular emails from a wonderful resource called The Daily Flame. They arrive like love letters full of guidance and inspiration from my “inner pilot light.” The one I got this week was so sublimely perfect and expresses my sentiments so well that I decided to share it here.
Consider this a sort of Santa swap, where I’m re-gifting these words to you.
My sister and her teenage son were visiting from Colorado. We were walking back from the coffee shop near my house when I looked down and there it was—a hundred-dollar bill, waiting patiently on the pavement for me to leisurely bend over and pick it up. The two of them hadn’t seen it and they were astonished and envious that I had.
The extra cash was just what I needed. It allowed me to take us all out to dinner and buy some birthday gifts for my nephew.
I’m so grateful for the friends, old and new, who came to my book signing at Women and Children First Bookstore! I was especially surprised to see a few faces I had not seen in fifteen or twenty years; the spark of recognition in meeting again was indescribable.
That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? A spark of recognition.
I write in pursuit of it. I read in search of it. I connect with friends for the joy of it.
Writing is hard. There’s no point softening that sentence with qualifiers. It’s just hard.
James Joyce said, “Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives.” Elizabeth Gilbert says that 90% of her writing life consists of nothing more than unglamorous, disciplined labor. “I work like a farmer,” she says, “and that’s how it gets done.”
It’s been a while since I’ve watched daytime TV, much less a talk show. But this week I’ve been tuning in to one particular show, and I want to encourage you to do the same. Not every day—just next Tuesday, when I’ll appearing on ABC7 Windy City Live to talk about my book.
I have no idea what to write.
As I was thinking about today’s blog, these were the only words running through my mind. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.
It made me realize that I’ve been saying this a lot lately. I was at a gathering recently with other She Writes Press authors and one woman asked me how I was feeling about my upcoming book release.
👉 Enjoy dedicated writing space just steps from Lake Michigan
👉 Benefit from one-on-one developmental editing sessions