Anna DeStefano's Blog, page 13

How We Write: What does your wall look like?

Every book just flows from my fingers, like a movie playing itself from my imagination into the most beautiful of prose… And THEN, I wake up.

Such is the charmed life of a working fiction writer.

I’m a month away from my next manuscript deadline–the fourth in a year, and each night when I sleep (not that I sleep much), I dream of the book magically being done and the pressure being off and me and my husband and son being on a beach somewhere whiling away simple hours free of the fear that I won’t EVER puzzle this story out.

But that dream doesn’t last long, unfortunately, before a darker one takes over.

I’ve hit a wall, you see, as I do with every story.

I teach others how to do this stuff, so you’d think I’d know better how to handle this place in the process that we all come to. Yet the despair is always here waiting for me. The wall is my darkest creative point–when I must push through doubt and confusion and make story and character make sense NOW, because there’s no more time for them to figure themselves out on their own.

And in my dreams, when they stop being fanciful and take a nightmarish turn toward reality, this is what my wall often looks like.

It has doors and windows, I realize once I calm down. There are openings in the wall I fear blocks my story, doors and windows that I can see through, create through, believe through. THAT’S my job. It’s yours, too, when you write.

I’ve been at this long enough to understand and organize my process. This place I’m in now, and will return to with the next book. is why I push through as much of my rough draft as I can before I go back and rewrite. Rewriting takes me to the wall, and the wall stops me. Before that happens, it’s my job to have drafted as much raw material as possible, to discover as much as I can, until this stopping place takes over. And then it’s my job to stare at the wall for as long as it takes, until I find the right door and window, and I understand how and where to write through them, so I can meet my deadline.

It’s a hard, unforgiving place, this wall. This deadline. This creating on demand, even when I’m feeling more lost than creative.

But it’s my dream, too. Even this part of it. It’s my path to embrace this very low point, and to keep my eyes trained on the beautiful rewrites waiting just on the other side. It’s my dream to kick through the wall, to kick its ass, and to find the freedom that creativity becomes, once it’s best empowered by its best purpose and direction.

I need this low, troublesome place, you see. So do you, my writer friends.

And my reader followers, whatever you want most…I suspect you’ll find your wall there, too, just before you hit your truest stride. It’s fear and doubt and confusion, the bricks you lay into your dream wall. But it’s your chance to find your next victory, too, once you turn the dark thoughts off and make your hopes flow again.

The wall isn’t my problem. It’s not yours. Embracing the low, troublesome places of our journey is how we grow stronger. The wall is where we claim our confidence.  The sprint on the other side of it, toward the finish line, is the best place of all. All we have to do is trust in the path, and find our way to that other side.

What does your wall look like today? Your door and window?

Are you willing to see and fight and create your way through it, to reach the more beautiful dream on the other side?

Interested in more writer-ly crafty angst? Check out the How We Write series.

More publishing-ly, business-y chatter? There’s Publishing Isn’t For Sissies.

More of me, musing about life in general–the parts of life that inspire me to write through that wall? Then The Soul of the Matter is your next destination.

And above all, whatever you’re soul is creating today my friends–Write On!

Latest Newsletter…

I’ve been asked to create a place where readers can find my latest newsletter. So…

Here you go ;o)

That’s right, just click the link for a preview…

It’s a rough solution, but one that works until a designer can do a better job for me.

Those of you who are already signed up for my newsletter, this is a duplicate. My apologies.

Those who aren’t, link over to my website, look to the right of the home page, and sign yourself up for secure Constant Contact alerts of all the latest updates (including contests, sales and giveaways), as soon as I have them ;o)

Oh, and because I need art, let’s all drool over Three Days on Mimosa Lane’s cover again!

Toodles!

The Soul of the Matter: Is Your Character Alive?

Is your character alive? It’s a great question that Claire Mussed answers beautifully on The Salon. She tells us that whatever else a reader thinks about a character in a story, what matters most is, “Is this character alive?” I love her feminist rant, which triggered this response to a review of one of her books. And I love even more the question her response begs us to ask about our own lives–Are WE alive?

Whether you’re a writer or not, it’s the kind of challenge that should resonate. Whether I was a writer or not, it would touch me. Because that very mystery–What makes a life about more than simply existing…what makes it thriving?–is at the core of the voice inside me, searching for answers.

I struggle sometimes to reconcile my optimism for life with the honesty I try to see in the world.

I personally don’t find forced cheer or fun either inspiring or entertaining. I feel what I feel, I embrace what I am where I am, and I look for encouragement and amazement around every corner, regardless. Does that mean I’m happy all the time? No. But I’m authentically alive, engaged in my life, and living with every ounce of my being, looking to both now and the future, craving the next opportunity.

My Mimosa Lane Series can be a bit too realistic for some romance readers. I get that. I write outside the lines, beyond the rules–which is exactly where I live. But I hope I do live. Just as I hope my characters do, in the hearts and minds of readers who embrace and cherish them for the thriving journeys they’re on.

My vision for living, and my voice when writing, is to live and inspire both characters and readers to do the same. And to get you to ask…

How will you live today?

May Three Days on Mimosa Lane CONTEST

Three Days on Mimosa Lane is on its way (pre-order now for the July 23rd release)!

To celebrate, my May Blog Giveaway features this AMAZING Coach Daisy Applique umbrella and a signed ARC of the book.

My lovely new assistant, Carla Gallway from Book Monster Promotions, has it all set up through Rafflecopter. There are tons of ways to earn points for a better chance to win.

So:

Read all the terms and conditions below.
Log In.
And dive into the fun!

Click HERE for Giveaway Details and Entry Guidelines.

And don’t forget my Mimosa Lane Coach Boutique with tons more goodies, over on Brenda Novak’s Diabetes auction!

***

Three Days on Mimosa Lane

One day can change your life forever…Three days can transform a painful past into a beautiful tomorrow…

Once, Sam Perry had it all. A loving marriage, an amazing job she adored as a preschool teacher, and a beautiful home. She was safe, happy and secure.

Then the unthinkable happened…

Watching his once carefree wife withdraw into herself was almost more than Brian Perry could handle. The only thing that kept him going was knowing that he loved her more than life itself. Moving her out of New York to Chandlerville, a small, quiet suburb of Atlanta, felt right. Anything, to get her away from the memories of the buildings, and her world, crashing around her.

Now, two sons and many years later, Sam cherishes the new life on Mimosa Lane that Brian built for them.

Until lightning strikes twice…

Called a hero by her small community, Sam feels more like a coward than ever. Instinct draws her into an altercation at her children’s school—an instinct that also drives her away from the warm cocoon of her family.

Brian refuses to lose his wife again. He agrees to give her the space she asks for, but he soon realizes space isn’t something they and their children can afford. He knows their love can still conquer all. But this time he’ll need their entire community to help him win his wife back.

You’re giving away what? COACH, Trifari and more!

The COACH Daisy Applique Umbrella below is my blog giveaway this month ;o) Look for the contest to go live (hopefully today), as soon as my assistant gets it all set up.

Why? Because there are beautiful flowers on  the cover of my Three Days on Mimosa Lane (sneak peak and COVER REVEAL below), and we’re kicking off the pre-release fun–you can pre-order your copy now, and have it in your hot little hands when the release goes life July 23rd.

Why  else? Because I have  LOVELY Coach boutique again in this year’s Brenda Novak Diabetes Auction, full of pink, Pink, PINK spring/summer Coach bags and other goodies, PLUS cute Trifari pins from my personal collection (I added so many lovely ones, after using them as a central theme in Christmas on Mimosa Lane). More Pics below and to come!

You’re giving away what?!

Yep.

It’s spring. It’s beautiful outside. I’m sprinting toward my deadline for Book 3 in this Seasons of the Heart series, Love on Mimosa Lane (out in January!), and I’m sharing my excitement with Brenda and my blog and social media friends and fans.

So… Scroll through everything below. Don’t miss out on any of the fun.

Check back here for the umbrella giveaway details (I’m hosting a blog contest each month, May through Three Days on Mimosa Lane’s release in late July/August).
Click over to Brenda’s auction and bid on more gorgeous bags and Trifari treasures.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, my newsletter, etc. (links to the right in the blog sidebar) so you don’t miss a single chance to win during the fabulous Three Days on Mimosa Lane pre-release excitement my assistant and publicist have planned this spring and summer!

Three Days on Mimosa Lane. Pre-order you some of this!

One day can change your life forever…Three days transform a painful past into a beautiful tomorrow…

Once, Sam Perry had it all. A loving marriage, an amazing job she adored as a preschool teacher, and a beautiful home. She was safe, happy and secure.

Then the unthinkable happened…

Watching his once carefree wife withdraw into herself was almost more than Brian Perry could handle. The only thing that kept him going was knowing that he loved her more than life itself. Moving her out of New York to Chandlerville, a small, quiet suburb of Atlanta, felt right. Anything, to get her away from the memories of the buildings, and her world, crashing around her.

Now, two sons and many years later, Sam cherishes the new life on Mimosa Lane that Brian built for them.

Until lightning strikes twice…

Called a hero by her small community, Sam feels more like a coward than ever. Instinct draws her into an altercation at her children’s school—an instinct that also drives her away from the warm cocoon of her family.

Brian refuses to lose his wife again. He agrees to give her the space she asks for, but he soon realizes space isn’t something they and their children can afford. He knows their love can still conquer all. But this time he’ll need their entire community to help him win his wife back.

Coach Daisy Applique Umbrella–contest details to come!

Coach Goodies  up for auction over at Brenda’s place. Bid well and often, it’s a great cause.

Trifari Treasures–win one, plus a signed copy of Christmas on Mimosa Lane! Isn’t she a beauty?

FREE Secret Legacy! 99 Cent Dark Legacy Promo!

I’ll be blogging regularly again beginning May 1st, once I have a rough draft of my Seasons of the Heart Book 3 WIP. But until then, enjoy some AMAZING new promotions for my Legacy series from 47North!

Secret Legacy, Book 2,  is FREE through the end of the month, if you sign up for the Kindle Delivers Daily Deals!

Dark Legacy, Book 1, is only 99 Cents for a limited time!

So if you love some thrilling, dream-theory based psychic twin goodness–also amazing family dramas and love stories, click the links above and get you some of this Kindle goodness, before Amazon stops losing their minds and giving my books away ;o)

Look for more great goodies and fun posts, beginning May 1st.

SNEAK PEEK! Check out my Mimosa Lane COACH Boutique on Brenda Novak’s online diabetes auction!

I’ll be giving away more Coach prizes monthly out here on the blog, beginning in May, so tell your friends to sign up for email notification of each new post!

The Soul of the Matter: Create or fade away…

I’m an overwhelmed writer who’s been hiding from my writing for a week or two…or three. But not writing makes me feel even more overwhelmed. It’s not a cliche. Whether you’re an artist or not, if you’re not interacting with what inspires you in the world, you’re pretty much guaranteed to make whatever funk’s messing with you worse.

It’s easy to feel burned out these days. As parents and business people and friends and lovers and, yes, creators of things that inspire others, we’re doing more each day and often getting paid less, which means if we want to pay our bills that even more doing looms on the horizon. And our souls can suffer, bottoming out and leaving us in a mental fetal position where we feel we have nothing else to give ourselves or others.

And then it’s not quite winter anymore and not quite spring, and crawling under the covers (at least mentally) and feeling blue seems like a good one-day, short-term solution…until it turns into weeks of letting ourselves off the hook.

It’s so easy to stop interacting with what challenges us and feeds us at the same time. It’s human nature when we’re on overload to scale things back to the bare minimum. We get the day-to-day done that keeps the water coming out of the faucets and lights on, while we’re emotionally absent in ways that at first protect us, but then begin to drain us.

There’s a common ground to find. There’s a balance we need to seek, instead of the oblivion of just turning our creative, vulnerable, softer side off for a while, so it can lick its wounds.

We think backing away from what makes us uniquely us (and the part of us that’s so exhausted, because we’ve put so much of ourselves out there already) is the answer. And maybe for a a day or two, it is. But not feeling stressed (or telling ourselves that’s the ideal) is a gateway drug. For a day or two, it’s a lovely zen. Then it becomes a hideout, and then almost a gateway into convincing ourselves that we don’t want to go to that stressed place again. Ever.

Creatively, stress is most often what drives us. Peace and balance is essential, yes. But all humans strive to create SOMETHING. We create or we fade away, because we’ve been put here to be something unique that no one else can be. And when we choose to not be that something, because being it can be the hardest thing we will ever do, we’re denying the very inspiration that feeds our weary souls. We’re NOT balanced in those too-quiet moments that stretch into days and weeks. We’re not stressed, but we’re not living either. We’re hiding.

Hiding from who we are and what we’re meant to do is just as overwhelming as feeling overwhelmed and burned out. Don’t do that. Not more than a day or two of regrouping–not if you have any choice in the matter. I’ve been in that place where you can’t bounce back. I lived in-between like that for over a year. I had no choice. Everything had to stop. And so much of my creativity faded away, I wondered for a time if I’d ever get it back. That’s where I believe a lot of people stall, and tell themselves they can’t handle the crush and the rush and the flood of conflict that comes with diving back into the most challenging parts of their lives–the creative parts that make you feel most vulnerable and alive. It’s a seductive place, built to make you believe you’re better there, when what you’re really doing is being afraid of going back to your chaotic life. You’re fading.

I have a choice now. This week, I’m claiming that choice, whether it’s reasonable or I’m ready or not. No matter how tempting the numbness of hiding, I want to be me more. Me when I’m thriving. Me when I’m working on an edge that’s so precarious, I’m challenging myself to grow. Me, believing when there’s no reason to trust that all will be well, that I can keep going and find my center in my creativity and learn how to relax into conflict instead of needing to hide away from it because of the insecurities that come with being who and what I am.

Me when I’m creating.

Me when I’m thriving.

Me when I’m believing in myself.

Me.

Me, me, me me…

No, this isn’t a narcissistic post.

Well, not much of one.

It’s actually a come-to-Jesus post to myself that I don’t mind sharing, because I think we all go into the shadows every now and then, and we need to, but we also need to come out sooner rather than later and get back to it. We need to recuperate, but we need to live. We need to rest, but we need to work. We need solitude, but we need community. We are alive, no matter how burned out we might be, and we never should forget that.

I’m not an extrovert, and I don’t expect myself to be, particularly when I’m exhausted from writing three novels in twelve months and I have at least two more to write this calendar. But I don’t sleep or eat or feel well when I pull so totally back from my creative life I disconnect from what feeds me. Despite my self-imposed break, I wrote a new proposal last week. I wrote the first two pages of a new novel yesterday. And after weeks of “resting” that wasn’t working, I slept through the night for the first time last night. Because I’m creating again, whether I’m ready to again or not. I can’t afford NOT to.

Create or fade away, that’s the soul of the matter this week.

Don’t fade away. The world needs more of you and what you uniquely bring to it, not less.

And you need more of the world and how it drives you to be who and what you are. That’s the balance. That’s the secret. Trust the “real” work you do to be your resting place, even when you need to stop working. Reconnect with your soul, yes. But reconnect with why you do what you do best, and get back to that as quickly as you possibly can. The other details can wait. Your creative calling in this life cannot…

How We Write: When we’re not…

I’ve been frozen. My fingers have been still. But my mind has been racing. I’m a writer who’s been in one of those fugue states between projects that is full of thinking and planning and anxiously wondering, but not full of words. They’re not coming. They’re not my friends right now. They want to be now, but I’m mute. They’re jealous and needy and greedy and bitchy, and I’m not sleeping, the way I don’t when I’m on deadline. I can’t write. Not yet. But I will. Soon. Why can’t the words understand that?

I stress about and regress into and resist these times between most every major project. I should be catching up on business and planning. I should be enjoying the peace and freedom of a deadline well met. But I’m angtsty instead. Writing is my natural state. I feel at loose ends and a little like I’m lazy when I’m not.  But I’ve delivered three books in a row in the last nine months, and my mind needs a break–whether it wants one or not.

People are waiting for me to get up-to-date on emails and commitments and plans for the rest of 2013. Friends are wanting to catch up, and so do I! But I’m still wanting to hide a bit. Okay, a lot. The pressure hasn’t let up, and I’m not sure it will until the next story is flowing. It’s not natural for me–this down time. But it IS part of my writing, and it’s time I accept that.

I need to conquer this state of letting go that renews and gives me direction and fills me with the hope (often unreasonable hope) that the next book will be magic, just as the last one was (you know, once I’d revised it like 100 times, because I was dreading working on it not to long ago, the same way I’m dreading the new words).

We need to trust the not writing parts of our creative process, the same as we do the writing ones. We need to see that we can’t always be ON, and that trying to force ourselves to be will defeat us in the end. Yes, I’m high-functioning and Type-A and all the other freakish cliches that really just mean I can do a dozen things at once and juggle a lot of interests and fly with the big birds (no, not the yellow Big Bird, but the bird/flying equivalent of running with the big dogs, because for some reason writers are more birds to me).

I want to be everything at once. All the words want out at once. Each story I’m planning to write is always more interesting than the one I HAVE to write next. And juggle that kind of dissonance and intellectual conflict can drive a not writing girl batshit crazy, once a deadline’s met and she pulls it together enough to look around and start to realize what’s been going on and piling up while she and the words have been in solitary together.

The reality of writing is that sometimes there is no writing. There has to be no writing. There’s so much else to this business–business stuff that I leave to others to go on and on about, because the internal stuff of being a writing is what comes to mind when I think about sharing my journey, not the hot-to-be-a-financial-success stuff that is all the rage on other blogs.

But the most difficult else for me and a lot of writers I meet is the quiet, emotional growing that we must give its due if we’re to weather the chaos of a long-term publishing career. We keep writing new stories, over and over again, by giving ourselves permission NOT to write from time-to-time, and by making as much of that flying time as we do the writing time.

So, I’ve been absent a lot the last few weeks, just as I have been the last few months. Because I’m not writing. I’ve been a void I needed to become, so I could face the craziness waiting for me when I come back. I’ve been alone in a very selfish way, so I can be open to inviting everyone and every character and every story I need to back into my mind and move on.

I’ve been mulling over several projects that have nothing to do with writing, plans for travel to teach for the rest of the year, a four-book proposal I’m about to pitch, and detailed plans for Mimosa Lane Book 3 (which readers are going to LOVE). All while some pretty cool things have been happening, while I’ve been eyeing them suspiciously from my quiet corner, resenting almost how they’re calling me back to reality–even if it’s simply to celebrate my good fortune.

These last few week, I’ve met with friends, even visited my mother, attended writing meetings, taught, reconnected with family, and cheered friends in their lives. But I haven’t written. I haven’t been as present as I could have been in my own career. I haven’t even cheered for the new good stuff that’s been coming. I needed to be quiet. I needed to be selfish. I needed to be alone in my mind and know that I could be. Just for a little while.

Which is a round about way to saying something very simple, if you’re following HoWW for a bit of guidance through your own publishing journey. How do we write when we’re finished with one project and staring down a dozen more and feeling overwhelmed? We don’t. Sometimes, no matter how much expectation is pressing down on us, we need to not create for a while, so that when we’re ready we can hit the next project out of the park.

The latter part of this last week and today, I’m beginning to feel myself again. I’m beginning to do again. I’m beginning to create and feel the words and see them come to life again. I’ve made it through the silence and am reconnecting with my voice. None of which was possible in early February.

Selfish time well spent, that’s my secret. That’s my latest advice. Not what you expected, no doubt. But it will help you fly, if you use your silent time wisely and surrender to your pockets of selfishness. You can. And you will. And you’ll know when you do that it’s just as important as the writing.

And when you do, I’ll be watching from the sidelines, likely on my next deadline, cheering you on!

Things My Teenage Says: You’re kinda weird sometimes. But that’s okay…

Mom, you’re kinda weird sometimes, my teen says, but that’s okay. All my friends and I are weird, too. Everyone at my school is. It’s cool that way…

Weird? I ask, vaguely, like only a mother can be–one who’s grateful her kid’s talking to her and fairly certain she’s been dissed, but she’s so grateful to have a private moment with her teen she’s feeling almost giddy with the shame of it.

Yeah. I mean, we’re all different, and it’s okay, and no one’s trying to be normal, so I’m used to it.

You’re used to me?

You don’t sleep a lot of the time, and then you sleep for days once your books are in. And you go for weeks wearing mostly your pajamas when you’re on deadline because you hardly go anywhere you don’t absolutely have to go. And then you spend weeks meeting friends you haven’t seen forever and taking care of things outside the house, and it’s like you can’t stand to be here because you’re not writing and you need to be anywhere but here not writing. You know?

Yeah. My God, what have I done? Sounds kinda weird, doesn’t it.

No, the wise one says. It’s your normal. So that’s okay.

Now I know I’m not supposed to be bragging in these blog posts (even though I know I do, so, WHATEVER). And I’m supposed to be entertaining and sharing an insider’s view of what it’s like to raise today’s teenager. And my goal all along has been to record just a few of these precious moments, the way they are in the moment, to look back on later when we’ve all moved on to another season of our lives.

But, It’s your normal, is where I fell in love with my teen all over again. Or maybe it was, So that’s okay.

He’s still not sure what he wants to do.  My techie teen is talking now about how much he’s loving statistics and finance, and maybe doing something business or management in college would be fun. He’ll be great at everything he tries, now that he’s on board with conquering how he learns in whatever learning environment he faces. And his mind is opening up to a world of opportunities.

And now I know that he’s starting to know that it’s not about looking or acting like everyone else, or studying what his friends think is cool or even what he thought was cool a year ago or even a month ago. And he clearly knows that normal isn’t the goal. That NOT being normal is totally okay.

And THAT is why he’ll be successful. That is what I love most about the entire bizarre conversation above–where my teen’s calling me a freak–like him. And that’s okay.

He’s seeing weird as normal, and normal as not the ultimate goal, and success as something he  makes for himself. And that is a beautiful, lovely thing for a mother to behold.

The Soul of the Matter: Sunday, Sunday…Rest with me, won’t you?

Resting isn’t for the faint of heart. Resting with purpose, that is. Being lazy has its place, no doubt. But resting isn’t all we need, when rebuilding is the goal. Revitalizing. Renewing. Reconnecting with who and what we are beneath the work and the responsibilities and the demands on our emotional selves that drive us to the brink. These are the intricate, delicate bones of real rest.

Good times, bad times, all the time that we spend being and doing and saying what the world accepts we are… Our outward selves are important. But it’s the inner us that only we know how to feed, and it’s our own renewal that only we are responsible for in the end.

To others, we are the combination of everything they’ve seen and heard us do and say, and everything they’ve thought about that person they’ve watched perform for them. But unless we come with our own running narrative (too bad we can’t all live in a novel, right?) others don’t know what we really fee and need and aren’t getting, not unless we tell them. And who wants to be that needy girl, right?

So we muddle through–the kind of muddling that takes a lot of skill and deflection while we take care of our own stuff, on our own, so others won’t see so much of it that they’d get fed up with how demanding we could really be if we let our insecurities off their leash. That kind of muddling can be exhausting. Being honest about who and what we are, at least to those closest to us, would be far less taxing on our nerves, even though honest turns out to be more work in the end than hiding. So, avoiding the harder work, we muddle onward most of the time, thinking that’s what’s expected of us. What others need. How we need to be, so the people we need will still be there for us…

But I digress. The stories we tell ourselves to justify the distance we keep between us and the honest things our relationships could become if we trusted life and loved once more is a topic for another blog post (and, well, all of my novels of late ;o).

Today, Sunday, is a blog about the very hard work of resting. As exhausting as it is to put on a show the rest of the week, a Sunday of rest can be just as challenging.

Top priorities (for writers and readers and livers of life of all variations) include discovering core truths for our resting selves such as the following:

If you were the only one in your life, what would spend your Sunday doing?
If you could do only one thing today, and there were days left to do anything else, what things would disappear off your to-do list forever?
If you couldn’t speak or spend time with another person today, what one thing would bring you the most joy and satisfaction?
If you had all the money or resources or whatever else you needed to make whatever your dream for this day of rest come true, what dream would you leave all the rest behind to achieve?
If you were free of all other expectations, if there were no consequences on your horizon tomorrow, what would you want most to have achieved by the end of this Sunday?

No matter how big or how small or how taxing your own private, personal, inner dream for this day might be, pursue it. That’s the work that the best rests are made of. It’ s a start at least, telling yourself you can have what feeds you most, no matter the nurturing everyone else in your life needs. We have to feed the inner beast every now and then, so she’s ready to take on all those outward needs I eliminated in the list above, because they’re about everyone else and not the us resting days should be about protecting.

Be a little selfish about your resting, is all I’m saying. Whether selfish to you means reading a book or a chapter of a book or a page of a book (or in my case writing a blog no one else in my family understands or gets anything out of) before you do anything for anyone else on your Sunday.

The others in your world are just as important. I realize that. But it’s these moments of rest with which we gift ourselves that make the person we need to be for others possible. Take care of yourself today. Do for that inner you first. Invite joy and satisfaction into your life every Sunday or rest day or whatever you want to call your Me-Al day. Chase the static and needs of others out of your mind for one perfect moment and envision what you need to fill up with most, and make that happen. Make that your purpose first, and the others will get their kibble, too.

Thanks for helping start my Sunday off the way I’ve wanted to begin every Sunday all this time I’ve been away. You’re the bestest muddling home to come back too, EVER! It’s wonderful to be working so hard at resting again…and to find so many of you so close, resting right along with me.