It’s been a long time since I last made an entry on this site…too long. Joan Chandler had herself almost four months of publicity for her latest book, Bama Bride, as it was my last entry before I went off the grid. No, I didn’t spend the last four months at a weight loss boot camp, though I certainly would have benefitted from such an adventure. I finally changed the background on my computer this morning. It had the quote, “A year from now, you’ll wish you had started today.” Well, yes, I will, but I just keep pushing back “today”, so I changed it to another inspiring background, a picture of Richard Armitage from the Esquire UK photo shoot. Now that, my friends, is truly inspirational, yet I don’t think weight loss is what it inspires in me.
This year has been one of the most difficult of my life. It rivals twenty years ago when I was at death’s door with pancreatitus. It rivals those months after giving birth to my incredible son when I fought post partum depression (having a baby at 40 when you are a person with very rigid routines can be overwhelming). Yet, in spite of it all, I recognize I have MUCH to be thankful for today. Here are a few of those things, not necessarily in any order of importance (sorry, but the list is more for me than you):
- My husband is madly in love with me, and thinks I am “so beautiful” (now I will NEVER add my picture to this site!)
- My son is healthy, smart, kind-hearted, and has a sense of humor that he thinks will have him being “the last comic standing”
- My father is beating the odds and mystifying his doctors by still being alive when given only months to live after being diagnosed with mesotheilioma over a year ago. He is not bed-ridden, uses oxygen only as needed, and walks around the yard picking satsumas and lemons off trees he planted years ago. He will be at our Thanksgiving dinner this evening and not “on the hill by the pond” at a local cemetery. (This does kind of rank at the top of the list this year!)
- I have a family that loves each other ( even if we don’t always agree with each other’s choices/opinions )
- I have close friends I can be my true self with – one that I work with, and one that was my college roommate. They’ve seen me through the good, bad, and the ugly and have made me laugh through it all, and I mean laugh until you cry kind of laughing!
- I have found joy in writing, and best of all, there are people that seem to enjoy reading what I write. That humbles me like nothing else.
This year has been difficult for multiple reasons, but the most challenging of the difficulties has been centered around family issues (Thankfully, not concerning my husband and child.). It has been over a year since I have been able to write anything. Writing had become my outlet when needing an escape, but during this time, the words wouldn’t come. During the last month, a seed of an idea has been planted in my brain, and it hasn’t withered yet. I am going to move forward with this idea, and hopefully it will grow and flourish, becoming a new story that can provide an escape for those that have honored me with their interest in my work. Maybe today will be that “today” that I start a new book, and another year won’t go by without something to show for my love of writing.
I hope that each of you find a moment to think of the things you are thankful for today. When I was a child, I belonged to a girls’ group at my church, and the scripture verse we quoted weekly was Philippians 4:8 (KJV). It spoke of thinking on things that are true, just, good, honest, lovely, and of good report. I believe I am going to begin dwelling on such things, even in the face of adversity. I’ve felt that during the last four months I have “dropped my basket” (YA-YA Sisterhood term). I felt tired of fighting things I really had no control over, and let a sense of hopelessness settle over me until I had unknowingly wrapped it snugly around me like a hooded cloak. I have hidden inside that cloak of hopelessness for far too long. I’ve let myself go for far too long. I haven’t taken care of myself like I should, and it will be my husband and child that suffer if I don’t turn my ship around now. I’ve tried to always be positive and encourage others to be positive. Now, I guess it is time to pick up my basket and start filling it with those things that are “good, pure, honest, lovely, and of good report” because they do exist, I just haven’t looked very hard for them lately. I’ve been living Scarlett O’Hara‘s philosophy of “Tomorrow is another day.” It’s time to start living and doing things that count TODAY. I can never get these hours back. I’ve wasted too many precious days already. I’m glad we had this time together. You have helped me more than you know. I hadn’t planned on any of this chatter, but I seem to have convinced myself to move beyond hopelessness and see all the many bright paths that are open for me to follow. I will just have do what the song says from the Christmas children’s TV special Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and that is “Just put one foot in front of the other, and soon you’ll be walking out the door!” HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!
Ladies, here’s a little something “lovely” to think about…
You know I had to do it! 🙂
kate patrick 