A Love Note

I will never forget the first time I read Jane Eyre. The feeling I had as Miss Bronte addressed me as “Reader” a third of the way thru the novel made me feel special. It was as if she felt, since I had stuck it out with her this far, I was her friend and was deserving of a more familiar term. By the time she gave me her news, that she married “him,” I was inextricably linked in that friendship for the rest of my life.

And so now I address you, Readers, as my friends. You have stuck it out with me thru a very small (thus far) selection of serious and frivolous topics. You have stayed with me thru my silence over the last ten months. You have quoted me back to myself and you have encouraged me to get going again. I want you to know that I value each and every one of you, whether you have spoken back to me or you have just sat with me in silence, reading my thoughts.

I had very grand plans for writing this year. Of all the things I accomplished, writing consistently was not one of them. I have excused myself, thinking that life got in the way in a manner in which I did not expect. To a degree that is true. I had problems to solve with the work I get paid for and within friendships that did take up a lot of space. And maybe the challenge was that I didn’t feel as though I could really write for public consumption the things that were on my mind. These things were either unfair to share or not mine to share. So, I did write, but it all went to a journal.

And so here I sit in the dark early morning, closing out the last day of November (How did we get here so fast?), with a list of several topics to be researched, written, rewritten, edited (Hey there, mom, I’ve got some work for you), rewritten again, and then published. I hope you continue to stick by me, but I know it is a two-way street. I cannot continue to offer you silence and expect you to still be here. As you have already read, communication is something I can easily over complicate. But you’ll be hearing from me again. Before the end of the year.

Truly. Thank you.

The Never Writer

The Soon to Be Consistent Writer

The Occasional Writer

P.S.

How did I miss the collection of short stories, “Reader, I Married Him,” that was published in 2016? Have any of you read it? I guess I will be hitting a bookstore this weekend.