Yes, please. I'm ready.
My mantra for the coming year is Ready, Set, Go. It took an
Oracle Card reading to prove to me good things are on the way, especially if I work hard. This year has been a difficult one, and frankly, I
have dwelled and talked about it too much. I am lucky to have such wonderful friends that listen and don't remind me how much I repeat myself.
In a nutshell, which does not in any way minimalize
the emotional aspect of everything, this is what happened. I went in for hip
replacement surgery in April. The surgery went badly. Somehow, my femur
fractured after I was back in my room. Two days later, and many pain meds to help pass the time, the
hip replacement surgery was done again and the femur stabilized. I now have a
cadaver bone bracing the femur and three pints of blood from goodness knows
who. Just as I was beginning to relax, an infection set in and I had to have a
third surgery to clean the wound. (Sounds terrible, doesn’t it?) Three
surgeries in thirty days, an infectious disease doctor, twenty plus days at a
terrible nursing home rehab, and seven weeks away from my home. While it seemed never ending, I am wrapping
up outpatient physical therapy now and feeling pretty good. Not 100 percent,
but darn close.
During this same creepy year,
my mother had horrible health issues, and thanks to my horrible hip issues, I
could not be with her. We talked daily. She went into the hospital about the
same time I did and had the same amount of time away from home with her
physical therapy. Sadly, things did not go as well for her. My sister moved mother closer to her , into a lovely assisted living home. But mother’s health plummeted
and she went into hospice mid-August. We lost her two days later.
Mother was my
champion. She taught me you could be whatever you want at any age. She was a
shining example having redefined herself several times after my Dad died and
encouraged all my craziness to find myself when I became a widow at sixty. My
six dogs never worried her, while many of my friends questioned my sanity on
those numbers. At eighty-four, Mother got back to her writing roots and
published many romantic novellas. We could talk ‘shop’ at night on our calls. We
had a mutual admiration society. While she is gone, she lives on every time I
sit down to write.
And that brings
me to my goals and my Oracle Card reading. My friend whipped out her cards and
ordered I needed a reading. She prefers Oracle Cards because they are more
uplifting than Tarot Cards.
“The Magical
Mermaids and Dolphins Oracle Cards are specifically designed to help you
manifest your goals, life purpose, and divinely inspired dreams,” she told me
as she opened the box and handed a beautiful deck of cards to me. I shuffled
the cards, placed the deck in my left hand, put my right hand on top, and
picked a card. I picked three cards and the meaning of each showed me I was
ready to do something grand.
I’ll buy that. It’s
time for me to find my place again. Ready,
set, go. I can’t think of a better mantra to move ahead. To be honest, I
had figured that out before the reading, but a tad of mystical power is always
a lovely ingredient.
My head is
spinning with new things to write. I’ve started my dog memoir and a fictional
book about a widow who has to restart her life at sixty-five. My platform is
always so obvious, widows, dogs, and old houses. Things I understand. Throw in
the occasional chapter on antiquing, and you have the story of my life, in
memoir, in fiction, and perhaps, in poetry soon. A few years ago, I published a
Kindle Christmas anthology with thirty other authors. In the works is a book on
writers and their dogs. Appropriate for the gal who named herself “Writer With
Dogs” after adopting my bunch of rescue hounds.
Whatever I write
this year, I will honor my mother with my words. She will be by my side
encouraging me as I remember all the late night conversations we had about life
and the stories we hoped to put on paper. The gift of writing is one that
pulled me through when I lost my husband eight years ago and will keep my
mother close as I pursue my upcoming goals. You
can be anything at any age . . . her
words fill my heart with hope.
It has been my pleasure to be part of Julie Valerie's Fiction Writer's Blog Hop this year. So many great writers sharing their thoughts. You rock, Julie.
And thanks to all who have read this post. You can return to the hop by clicking below.
