by Helen DePrima
I refuse to look back on
2018, filled with repeated crises and grinding anxieties. This year will be
better; I hereby declare 2019 the Year of Accomplishment.
Time and age are tricky
companions, sometimes slipping along together like autumn leaves floating on a
quiet stream, sometimes pulling at cross purposes like a hitch of green mules
the first time in harness. In childhood, time progresses in airy leaps: endless
summers as viewed from the last day of school, eons spent waiting for Christmas
morning, and then January till June, decades long instead of only a few months.
I have no sense of time
passing during the years between marrying and seeing my youngest off to
college, too busy raising children and saving for their education. I don’t
remember turning thirty or forty, milestones that some apparently view as
millstones. At fifty, something clicked in my brain: the future was no longer
infinite. Still plenty of time to chase dreams, but with real determination. Someday and one of these years went overboard.
Past fifty, I learned to sail
and for ten years enjoyed the heck out of lovely days on the ocean as well as
terrifying moments; what doesn’t kill you makes a great story afterwards. I
self-published my first novel and wrote three more for Heartwarming, fulfilling
a dream I’d nurtured in secret since high school. And a few years ago, I
returned to my happy place, Focus Ranch in northern Colorado where I spent
idyllic summers as a teenager. Miraculously, I found it virtually unchanged
after my fifty-year absence, still a working cattle ranch at the end of 34
miles of dirt road. Time had stood still, and for a week, age rolled away.
Now it’s time to leap into
high gear, to finish the manuscript currently in progress so I can move on with
a mystery series demanding my attention. To unearth my jewelry-making supplies
and cobble together a few funky necklaces and bracelets. To dig out my palette
and watercolor brushes from their long hibernation – all this before spring
frees me to work on my stone walls and begin new landscape projects.
Turning 75 isn’t a sign for
me to slow down, it’s a warning to hurry up. Lots left to accomplish. Outta my
way!
***
The time has come for him to cowboy up…
He's spent fifteen years at the rodeo, protecting riders when they hit the dirt. But what exactly is a bullfighter after a bull takes him down in the arena and lands him in a wheelchair? That's what Luke Cameron's still struggling to figure out. And if Katie Garrison, in the middle of a controversial divorce, can help him find a new kind of life…well…he's not one to turn her down! But she's still a married woman and her husband isn't going to let her go without a fight. Besides, Luke may never walk again. What kind of life can he give a woman like Katie?
by Liz Flaherty
I already claimed my word for the year—Try—so anything on
this list will have that qualifier with it. But a list is what it is. Without
complicating it further, 2019 will be the year I try to…
1. Not dwell on things. I waste so much time playing that game with myself and losing every single hand.
2. Get healthier. My response to everything—particularly those things I’m dwelling on—is to eat. I love food and rely on its ability to make me feel better. For a little bit. I hate that I’m less healthy than I should be because of that dependence.
3. Finish the book I’m obsessing over and get started on another, plus write a novella. My days of writing fast are over and I’m okay with that.
4. Get better about promotion. Which means spending my promotion time and money more wisely. This is a biggie. Have I mentioned to anyone that I hate promotion?
5. Take trips to places I have not seen before.
6. Sew more, quilt more, fit pieces together to soothe my soul.
7. Laugh.
8. Enjoy every day. Even the bad ones.
2. Get healthier. My response to everything—particularly those things I’m dwelling on—is to eat. I love food and rely on its ability to make me feel better. For a little bit. I hate that I’m less healthy than I should be because of that dependence.
3. Finish the book I’m obsessing over and get started on another, plus write a novella. My days of writing fast are over and I’m okay with that.
4. Get better about promotion. Which means spending my promotion time and money more wisely. This is a biggie. Have I mentioned to anyone that I hate promotion?
5. Take trips to places I have not seen before.
6. Sew more, quilt more, fit pieces together to soothe my soul.
7. Laugh.
8. Enjoy every day. Even the bad ones.
Okay, that’s my list of things I’m going to TRY to
accomplish this year. What about you?
***
Will an apple a day…
Keep love at bay?
For Cass Gentry, coming home to Lake Miniagua, teenage half sister in tow, is bittersweet. But her half of the orchard she inherited awaits, and so does a fresh face—Luke Rossiter, her new business partner. Even though they butt heads in business, they share one key piece of common ground: refusing to ever fall in love again. But as their lives get bigger, that stance doesn’t feel like enough…
Keep love at bay?
For Cass Gentry, coming home to Lake Miniagua, teenage half sister in tow, is bittersweet. But her half of the orchard she inherited awaits, and so does a fresh face—Luke Rossiter, her new business partner. Even though they butt heads in business, they share one key piece of common ground: refusing to ever fall in love again. But as their lives get bigger, that stance doesn’t feel like enough…
What inspiring and eloquent posts to read with my morning coffee, ladies! I so enjoyed them and can totally relate to everything you say. “Try” is a great word for the new year, Liz, and I too am trying to eat more healthily and not worry so much. And Helen, I plan to adopt your own mantra of “outta my way!”
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janice. I hope your year is a fabulous one.
DeleteHi Janice -- Happy New Year! You're welcome to my slogan; I use it to shout down doubters and naysayers. Perversely, nothing motivates me like someone saying, "You'll never . . ."
DeleteReally enjoyed these posts. I could have written them...but not as eloquently. Best of luck to both of you as you embark on "the best years of your life." Cynthia
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cynthia. Most years have been the best ones, but even I couldn't make 2018 into one of those. :-)
DeleteHi Cynthia -- glad you enjoyed our efforts. I'll keep you'all posted on how well my ambitious agenda works out.
DeleteYou ladies are both so smart, clever and talented. Helen, you have multitudes of talent in so many fields. Liz, too. Not writing fast any more is affecting me, too. I have to study the sun, moon and stars and their relation to earth before I can put anything on a page it seems. But it's writer-friends like you who keep me keeping on as I age.
ReplyDeleteAging does have its downsides, doesn't it? I do like Helen's "outta my way" mantra, too. Not writing fast is not the same thing as not writing well, though, so our voices are still there, Roz. Loud and proud!
DeleteGood morning, Roz. Not sure I'm all that talented, but I become fascinated by a new discipline. Sometimes they work out, sometimes I discard them after a single project. I love traditional hooked rugs but found I didn't enjoy creating them, so I just enjoy the old beauties I've collected. Recently I've rediscovered knitting, branching out into some creative adaptations.
DeleteThanks for the posts--seems like we all think big when it comes to what we accomplish and what adventures we want to have. I can tell from a couple of years of being on this blog that we all want to wring every last drop out of life!
ReplyDeleteYes, we do, and isn't that a great thing? Thanks, Virginia.
DeleteWell said, Virginia! Maybe that's why we create word adventures beyond what we can experience firsthand.
DeletePreach it, Sistas! Enjoyed both of your blogs.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pat. Helen's inspiring, isn't she?
DeleteI am like Helen, only my epiphany about time being finite, didn't hit me until I was sixty. Then I sat down to write, still unpublished, but writing and spinning and knitting and crocheting. After years in corporate management, my pent up creative juices are flowing....not as abundantly as I hoped, but flowing. I find this blog very encouraging to my inner writer. Please keep it up. Now that I've discovered you, can't wait to see what's next
ReplyDeleteIt's exciting, isn't it? Enjoy every day.
DeleteTake my word, it's never too late to write that book! The Ladies of the Club, a huge best-seller, was written in a nursing home. Go for it!
Deletebest wishes
ReplyDeleteTo you as well.
DeleteHmm, I commented earlier but must not have hit publish. Anyway, I love all your goals and enthusiasms. This year is shaping up to be a good one. Onward!
ReplyDeleteHope you're right, Beth!
DeleteAnd upward!
DeleteLove your post, and those book covers are some of the best!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amie. I like those covers, too!
Delete