After the storm...

It has been almost two weeks since my last post, and it has been a long and hard stretch of days. I am starting to feel like I am out of the undertow of grief again, and that is a relief.

A couple of things have happened while I was struggling.

I have continued to work on formatting my books for submission to the Indie Author Project. I am finding passages that I wrote years ago that feel like they were written just for me to read right now, as I continue to navigate this post Cecil world with my grief. I will be sharing excerpts for the next few posts, and you can decide how they make you feel.

I have decided to take on a bigger volunteer commitment, which will take away from my writing time, but hopefully, feed my soul, and help restore some balance in my life.

Soon, I will be taking another break from this blog, attending a family wedding. I may find time to share thoughts while traveling, but I am not counting on that.

For now, I am back. Hopefully, I will be able to keep my head above water for a while now.

Here is one of those excerpts I found:

"Ed and his wife Shirley had a wonderful marriage and a wonderful life together. They had raised three great kids and were planning to travel around the world when they both retired two years ago. Shirley had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer within six months of her and Ed’s retirement. They had at least gotten to go on an African safari as their retirement gift to themselves before Shirley’s diagnosis.

The remaining months of Shirley’s life had been fighting through chemo, a short remission with a trip to Australia and New Zealand, and then an aggressive return of cancer that had ended Shirley’s life in November. Prescott had held Ed as he cried after Shirley’s funeral, not knowing what to say."

Me and Cecil had seven years - but why did I pick pancreatic cancer all those years ago? I started writing this book in 2015. And including a short remission with a trip. For me and Cecil it was the train trip to Delaware. But in continuing reading "Unexpected Blessings", with Ed finding new life and new purpose in his volunteerism, I hope that I can do the same. Hence, the increased volunteer commitment.

My books continually reinforce the theme that God is active in our lives, if only we look and listen for Him. The passages I am finding as I reformat my older works convince me that I am right.