Thankful

I know I have mentioned in earlier posts about how difficult this year had been for me for a host of reasons, and my writing kept me sane. My year is ending so much better than when it began. I recently took a much needed vacation to Costa Rica and celebrated one of my friend’s birthday and engaged in long overdue self-care. The reflective time in which I rocked in a hammock overlooking an infinity pool with luscious green hills in the distance was the highlight of the trip and reminded me to be grateful of what I do have in my life and not what I don’t have.

I believe everyone should take a trip somewhere even if it’s a staycation in your town. Sometimes it takes placing yourself in a different setting from your familiar to become your most creative, peaceful self. I needed that to say thanks to God and the life that I do have. And to let go of all the negativity that had been holding me hostage to my emotions.

I also want to take the time to thank Delaney Diamond, my publisher and popular romance writer. She has been such a good mentor to me and has been supportive of my publications even if it was through myself and not Garden Avenue Press (though I have more work on the horizon through them). In the fourteen months I have known her, I have published thirteen of my stories. I’d written some within the last year and all within the last two years and through her influence and support I felt confident to release them and to keep writing even if it looks like I couldn’t find an audience. Thank you again and look forward to future endeavors.

I do hope that each of you remember to be thankful for what you have and if there’s something or someone you want, then work towards it. In everyday that we are blessed to grace this Earth there is beauty, peace, and joy even it seems impossible. I recall such a situation: My grandfather passed suddenly December 31, 2013 in front of my grandmother’s eyes. My mother was on the phone with my grandmother as the paramedics attempted to revive to no avail. They were in Baton Rouge and my mother and I were in Houston preparing for a New Year’s Eve party. Plans were quickly changed and I drove four and half hours to be with my grandmother who had been with my grandfather for years. Good friends of the family had already picked my grandmother up from her home and stayed with her until me and my mother could get to her. When we got to my grandmother, she seemed so lost, so small. We went back to her home and she told me and my mother that she couldn’t sleep by herself and we all climbed in bed with her. A full size bed. The minute we were all snuggled in bed, we realized it was too small for three of us. And when we couldn’t do anything but lie flat on our backs, (even a slight turn was impossible) I commented that we were like three pigs in a blanket. I remember that we all laughed so hard and long that happy tears flowed and we were able to fall asleep just as we were peacefully. And for that moment, no matter how hard that night had been for us, especially for my grandmother, who didn’t expect to find humor within hours of losing her mate of fifty plus years, our laughter was a symbol to us that life goes on and joy can still be found.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!