on accepting where i am right now
and consistently letting go.
Hello, friends. Hello sky, hello ground, hello more rain, and glimpses of sunlight. Let’s start with some beautiful things!
I love the way teenage boys talk about beautiful things when they notice them. (I have so many in my life right now, my kids and their friends, a full house always, these wonderful international kids.)
For example, “Whoaaa, look at your view, bro! Why are only the tops of the mountains in the sunlight?” It’s an exclamation and a question, always.On a family call the other day, Kai asked Isaac about his social skills. “How do you start talking to people?” It was part of a bigger conversation about social skills and moving out and the different ways our family communicates compared to the bigger world. Isaac is the most social person in our family, so Kai wanted to include his opinion. Isaac didn’t understand the question at first, but finally he said, “When I see someone I don’t know, and it looks like they want to play, I ask them if they want to join our game.” And that just seems like such a great way to make friends. I’ve noticed that Isaac is genuinely interested in people, too. He’s always telling me little snippets about other people’s lives with great enthusiasm.
My artist daughter just found out that she has received a scholarship that will cover a lot of her tuition next year! I’m so glad they see how wonderful she is. Being the mother of adult children is teaching me more about love. I completely and totally long for people to witness the shiny brilliance of my kids. “Look!” I want to say… “See how beautiful! See how talented! Look!” And it makes me want to be like that more for the world, for my friends, for my colleagues. Love that is effervescent, unafraid, and unthreatened by brilliance.
The little dog we are watching got really sick really suddenly, and it was scary. But after some vet care, she is getting better and better. This is beautiful.
On accepting where I am right now… I keep waiting for things to calm down. For there to be a smoother path, less hustle, less long day trips to the big city. I keep waiting to feel as though I am finished with my work. But no matter what, there is more waiting for me. And I am now accepting this.
I love my life.
I accept the chaos, the pairs of roller blades that Isaac has grown out of, the boys wrestling on my lawn when I come home. I accept the noise, the mess, the happiness. I accept the little furry creatures and how much they worry you sometimes. I love my life! I love the people who want to hang out, the garden that needs to be weeded, the books that are waiting to be written or mailed, or recorded.
I accept this now. The hustle of it. I accept where we are right now, right now. In the middle of it all. Pieces of my heart scattered around the world, dentist appointments and braces, and facetiming and text messages. Tropical weather and mildew and jackfruit smell in the fridge and bugs and toads and things that never stay clean.
I don’t only accept it. I live in my life with love, I love it. I do not allow it to be devalued by others who sometimes say, “we don’t miss that,” about chaotic birthday parties or loud noise. It is mine and I love it because it is mine!
So I am not waiting for all of this to pass. I am working now, working and playing and resting and living. And driving. Lots of driving. I let go of my expectations.
What are you accepting right now?
Update! I’ve heard from the folks at Kickstarter, and they would like me to be 100% finished with sending every reward out from my last campaign before starting another one— which, fair enough!
So the new campaign is delayed a little, and this is where I enlist you to cheer me on as I finish the last bit of that campaign: the audiobook. I’m sending out all the paperbacks now, and will order the hardcovers this week and get those out! But the audiobook will take a marathon of reading and some finesse. It's a good thing I’ve been working on my audio skills, both recording and editing. Every poem will need to be uploaded as a separate file; this is some audio wizardry.
Chapter 8 of World Whisperer is up on my Audiobook YouTube channel, by the way! Tell your friends!
And I’m going to use this time to work on spreading the news about The Hope of Becoming. I can’t tell you guys how complicated publishing and publicizing books have become!
Despite building lists and fans over the years, the social media companies make things very tricky. My recent Instagram post about the new book and campaign reached 90 out of nearly 2,000 followers. So many people don’t see what I post! Meta wants me to pay to show my posts to people who already follow me.
But we don’t let the big companies get us down. 😅 Or at least not for long. I think you’re going to love this new book and this series, if you don’t already. One very helpful thing you can do for the campaign is click through and ask to be notified when it launches. This lets Kickstarter know that you are interested and gets their inner promotion wheels turning.
In other news, once I’ve mailed all these paperbacks out for God of All Flying Things, I’ll be listing it on all the booksites. Yay! You can get the eBook here.
❤️ Links for you.
My Spring Sale for paid subscriptions is still going!
✨ New! I’m publishing my first audiobook soon and releasing it chapter by chapter on my new audiobook YouTube channel. Subscribe to follow along or just to support the project. I appreciate it!
📚 My books are here. If you would like to know where to start, try the first book in the World Whisperer Series or the first book in the Aveline Series. Or if you like poetry, you can try Everything Bright, Clear, and Beautiful, a Year of Poetry.
✨My writing mini-course is here— Following the Thread: Thirty Days of Guided Writing
🎨 I’m also a painter, and my art is for sale here.
🪲 My incredible daughter is working her way through art school, and you can be part of her journey on Patreon!