Secrets

I am not a fan of secrets. They can be very destructive. I do think we all keep secret; often about ourselves. In truth, very little can be kept hidden for long. There are plenty of novels based on that fact.

Thanks for visiting here

We kept a small secret for a couple of months here and it was very hard for me to do it. When you tell your secret to anyone else, and of course it often has to be shared, you risk the chance of it slipping out accidentally. Sometimes, you need an accomplice to be complicit in the secret to achieve your goal.

Peggy’s door wreath

When I was in Portland with my daughter last month, we were chatting about the holidays and birthdays. She has a big one coming up next year and her brother had a significant one coming up around Thanksgiving. Because he is a VERY private person, I’ll try to be mindful of details. We agreed that Christmas was not the time to travel to our mountain area as weather can be unpredictable. My daughter wanted to surprise her brother by flying up for the Thanksgiving holiday and his birthday. I had to share the secret with the cooks so they had an accurate head count.

Peggy’s wall hanging

There was a small Thanksgiving lunch at the Senior Center that was free to all that signed up. Even our families were allowed to participate. I signed up four of us but told my son we were just three attending the noon group so his wife could attend. The plan was to have my daughter slip out and be seated at our table and have him see her there. He walked right passed her as we went to sign in. He said there were three of us to the person in charge and she looked at her list. It said four. That took a bit of fancy dancing for a moment but I came back later to make sure we had the numbers right for her records.

Peggy’s hall table

Peggy’s hall table

Enough of Peggy’s gratitude to go around.

The holidays are full of secrets so we can have surprises. We do it every year to some extent. It was definitely a surprise for my son. He had asked weeks earlier if there was a chance his sister would fly out for Christmas. I could honestly answer that the was not a chance of that happening. I didn’t have to lie, just avoid the whole truth. I didn’t get pictures so I’m sharing photos of my neighbor’s Thanksgiving decor with you instead. She really does the holidays up in style, also my depth of gratitude, mostly for my family.

Found on the internet somewhere. Books bind my family too.

The end of autumn is here and we are in full swing of secret season. Secrets take a lot of energy but the end result can be good or not so good.

What is your take on secrets and surprises.

There are no secrets that time does not reveal. ~Jean Racine

From my heart to yours,

Marlene Herself

My Wildest Dream

Have you had dreams for your life that you thought would be so wonderful to accomplish? Sometimes, they stay dreams because you just don’t believe they can become real. I had several of those dreams. I wanted to teach when I was very young and set up classrooms for my siblings and the neighbor children. Later in life, when books became available and my best friends, I thought that maybe I could share what I had learned from life by writing my own books. Since classes were rarely available, I tried to teach myself as I had with most things in my life.

Part of my how to write books

More of my how to write books

A few months ago, I was pushed way out of my comfort zone by a very sweet and long-time friend. We had not seen each other in almost 15 years but Sharyn has been a quiet reader of my blog for many years. Sharyn was teaching Feng Shui here in the Arizona White Mountains where she and her husband owned a couple of theaters and raised their children.  She’s an adorable, high energy, butterfly of a human.

One of Sharyn’s books on Feng Shui

A woman of many talents, Sharyn decided to collect stories from many women and some men sharing their wisdom from a long life. One day, Sharyn gave me a call asking me to write a story for a second anthology she was putting together. I laughed.  She sent me a copy of the first anthology so I could get a better feel for what she wanted from me. Again, I laughed and said I wasn’t qualified to be included with these well-educated and accomplished women. She called again to convince me that I was indeed proficient enough to do this and sent me the requirements.

Flowers from Sharyn

So, I wrote, and rewrote several times. I was then instructed to send my story to her editor for final review. Every day, I expected someone involved with the publishing of this book to say my story was not what they were looking for and thank you for trying.

Somehow, that didn’t happen. Sharyn let me know the final publication date of 11/11/22 was set. There was a link that day for the Kindle version of the book and I downloaded it and today the hard copy comes out on Amazon. I bought several copies to be gifted to the few who have supported my dream to write.

The first anthology.

I’ve had a hard time telling anyone about it. It didn’t seem like something that could be real for me. I write a blog post once in a while to a small group of wonderful followers. I’m not college educated with writing credits ANYWHERE. I just write because the need is in me to do so. Now, I can truthfully say out loud, I’m a writer. I have a published story?! Dreams do come true.

Out today with my little part in it.

It’s real

Have you ever had a wild dream come true for you?

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” – William Wordsworth

From my heart to yours,

Marlene Herself