Be the Author of Your Own Dream
What dream is calling you today?
I wrote my last blog entry in May 2021, one week before Things My Mama Never Told Me was published. It’s pretty much the last time I wrote anything. Not writing creates an emptiness within that I can’t fill any other way . . . and yet until last week I didn’t pick up my pencil, open a journal, or notebook, or laptop . . . and just write.
I can create shoulda/woulda/coulda stories in my head with little effort. I can create guilt about anything from how often I cook, clean, or exercise, to how often I weed my garden or how often I work on my latest project . . . like the book I want to write for teen boys and their mamas.
Maybe it’s important to notice what went wrong, so it’s not a secret, so we can heal. Here are a few places I have faith will continue healing. I couldn’t hold and hug and play with my grandchildren, my family, my friends as often as I wanted. My brother-in-law died in February in the middle of a Texas ice storm and we had to decide how to honor his life in the midst of COVID. Then my dear consuegra (the mother of my daughter-in-law) lost her battle with Stage IV cancer on the day of tricksters and saints, October 31st.
After the tears, we can look for gratitude for those things that went well in 2021. Things like your love and support during the launch of Things My Mama Never Told Me! She became a #1 Best Seller on Amazon on the first day of sales, May 13, 2021. Things like the few friends and family who gathered in my son’sbackyard and a few more who gathered on Zoom and Facebook Live to celebrate release day. Things like your kind donations to my Go Fund Me, “Into the Hands of Teens.” Donations for 2021 totaled $3894 of the $5100 goal. My biggest joy came from giving away books to girls who came to book signing events. I purchased over 200 books so far and am waiting for schools to fully open back up so that I can meet with girls in classrooms or after school. Things like watching Ms. Macias-Meade’s English class write poems for the KidsWrite contest. We zoomed together and brainstormed about “What the World Needs Now.”And finally I hung out with so many readers and authors like you at Barnes & Noble, Warwicks, Bay Books, and at Idyllwild Library’s book celebration in October.
I am ready to dream again, to envision a New Year with new goals and new possibilities. Will you join me?
In my dream I am meeting with teens face-to-face on high school campuses. I am in the moment, in genuine relationship, not thinking of research or format or what it will all look like tomorrow. I feel at home, peaceful, content, and grateful.
In my dream I am interviewing young men so that I can offerteen boys some hope and help in their teen years. I am meeting with past and present students. The past students straddle their twenties now and wish to share the wisdom they have gained. They are excited to give the next generation of teen boys the “things they wish they would have known.”
In my dream, our “Into the Hands of Teens” Go Fund Me meets its $5100 goal, and even more importantly, free copies of Things My Mama Never Told Me are in the hands of more teen girls.
In my dream my imagination and your imagination bring us joy and adventure and healing. We tell our stories and we never stop learning. We start now by placing our voices on the pageand asking our questions to the universe. We believe and live in the flow and make mistakes.
Dream on, dear friends. I’ll see you in 2022.
What’s on your vision board?