Your life isn't...

...that one big thing

This is the time of the year when I remember what it was like to be a bestselling author back in the old days. It’s a reminder of what is really important and what makes up a Broad’s life. I hope it’s a good reminder for you, also.

So the year, I had a big contract under the Random House umbrella with my first novel, which was my second book, and there was a mere ten years between those two things happening, I received this beautiful holiday gift.

It was a cashmere blanket with the name of my book, The Elegant Gathering of White Snows, embroidered on the side. Pretty wow, yes? I kept writing, and the gifts kept coming, but as my literary star began sliding down the scale, for a variety of reasons, the gifts kept getting smaller and smaller.

One year, it was this beautiful coffee table tray; then there was this, and then there was that. Then, finally, when I was out of contract and considered a lost black sheep, I got a simple Happy Holidays postcard in the mail about a month after the holiday season.

None of this bothered me. Isn’t that something? I actually thought it was kind of funny and even nice to get a late card, and now I have this awesome story, which I am getting to the point of right now.

It’s never just one thing that makes a life. I’ve written a mess of books, like 16? or 17?, had babies, held the hands of a dying teenager, loved with all of my heart, camped under a zillion stars in the middle of the desert, walked through raging flood waters in the middle of a canyon, stood under a rainbow, dangled off the side of a helicopter, met famous people, watched my babies sleep, held my first grandchild, risked my life, to tell the truth, laughed until I fell over, felt the anguish of loss in every inch of my being, let a doctor stick tubes into my fast beating heart, walked with my face to the sky in dozens of rainstorms(one last night!), witnessed the aftershocks of murders and wars, drank wine in some seriously lovely places…the list goes on.

So, all of that, and so much more…even sitting here and sharing my heart with you are some moments that continue to make up my life for a long time, I hope!

THERE IS NEVER JUST ONE MOMENT.

Sometimes, Broads like us get worked up when we look over our shoulders and wonder if we’ve had that big moment. You have, and you will keep on having moments until the day you die. That will be quite the moment, too!

I keep the Elegant blanket handy when reading, and my feet get cold. The Elegant Gathering of White Snows, getting published by two different publishers, is quite the story, and the book is pretty damn good too! I am lucky to have that book and memory repeatedly rising and falling in my life. Sometimes, one of our moments is a gift that keeps on giving.

The photo on top is from one of my moments earlier this year on a beach in Oregon. More moments are coming, and I can’t wait to share them with you.

Get out there and make a new moment for yourselves, my lovely, wild Broads!

And now, as we did in the old days of journalism…###…this one is over.