The Friday Five!
What exactly do frogs mean?
I opened my back door at 6:30 this morning to let the dogs out and a frog came in. Jumping, crazily. I tried to catch it but it leapt out of my hand and immediately threw itself behind my crafting stuff. Which I am taking as a sign, because I believe in things like that. So what do frogs mean? I will google it after my husband gets up and takes it back outside.
This has been a hard week. A cousin I love dearly, from a family that has already suffered so much from an awful, genetic disease, is in the hospital fighting to get well. We all say, “It’s not fair,” a lot, especially when we are young. But this: this is really is. If you can spare a prayer or a good thought for our Noah in Boston this morning, it will be heard and much appreciated. I believe in that, too.
Also this week, I started writing something new. About a month ago I promised myself that on my daughter’s first day of school, I’d be at my desk at 9am. Butt in chair, as Anne Lamott says. The date was looming for weeks: at the beach, as I ran around getting forms and school supplies. When I finally sat down, I actually wrote something. It’s just a start. A germ, really. But it counts. Yay for beginnings! (And discipline. I have always said I am not the best writer, but I am a pro at pushing myself.)
Part of moving on, though, is letting go. I wrote so much over the last couple of years! Three books, a thousand plus pages. I’m usually good at realizing, eventually, when a novel isn’t my next one.
But this release has been harder. So many little things I loved among those pages. Hopefully I will find them another home. But just so I can say *someone* saw it, here’s the opening pages of a book I called Change of Plans. My agent said I should throw it in the trash (she is brutally honest) but this feels better. Finley, I let you go with love. Godspeed!
During all of these changes—-good, bad, all in between—-I continue to find solace out in my garden. Especially now, when the night sounds are so loud. I grew up listening to the frogs, crickets and cicadas chirping outside my window, and I love that I have it still. There’s a specific cadence to a summer night in NC.
Listen.
Have a great day, everyone!
