Me again, thanks to Lisa for allowing me the chance to share once a week with you all. Today I wanted to talk about something funny I read last night.
It was this tweet, and I felt called out on! by...

Amber Sparks

@ambernoelle

I was chastising my daughter for not practicing piano and I said “to be good you have to practice every day” and she said “you don’t write every day” and never have I been so effectively hoisted on my own petard
12:05 PM · Apr 14, 2023·
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Here is why I felt called. Even though it was so funny, it hit me differently, I thought I would share about how personally I took it and the reflection I now have on why.

Some of you may know that I have been writing several unpublished cozy mysteries, over the last

ten years, some chapters I have shared here and on my old blog.

I have been preparing about 6-8 different cozy mysteries in my head for the better part of a decade

I used to write every day. Then my life took an unexpected and frustrating "Plot Twist" of its own.

My role changed from stay at home "Mom of special needs children" at home to "indentured servant",

then "Caregiver", "Nurse" and well "Emotional Punching bag" and finally "Orphan".

I ended my marriage shortly after my final living parent passed and started my life a new.

All this emotional baggage is actually great for writing but, while writing (and reading) provided me

with a place to go and something to do while I was in constant turmoil in the past, it held nothing for

me during this time. I put it away, in a drawer, locked and walked away.

But that tweet struck a nerve, like the stories are calling again...

Now that I am feeling more settled in who I am and happy, it may just be time for me to

get back to writing.

Over the last few years, I did some home learning, took some courses, worked out of the house for

the first time in years, found my groove and then covid hit. Worked a dream job running a tea shop,

a passion for me and an amazing experience!

I was grateful that my father passed the year before the lock down, knowing full well he would not

have survived it. However it was another "Plot Twist" the tea shop shut down

I found myself again sucked into the fear of the now and future.

I could no longer read anything but the news, write anything, it was as though the stories

in my head all went into freeze mode when I did. I put my focus on getting my kids through the online,

school, while trying to figure out how to navigate my new normal. Constantly stuck in Fight, Flight,

and Freeze, and that quicksand I had worried about growing up watching Scooby Doo, which I thought

would have been more of a problem in my adult life, that had never materialized, until then, is

what I think about when I look back at the lock down and pandemic now. I feel like now I am just

starting to come out of survival mode, I am hoping that by writing this, maybe some of you may

identify and perhaps even relate and commiserate with me in navigating this new normal.

Now I find that I am not glued to the news, (checking it every 20 minutes, and three times a

night while I tried to sleep). I now try to check sites like buzzfeed and Bored Panda when I am looking

for something to do on my break at work rather than the news sites and gossip pages like TMZ and for

me the Daily Mail. I let myself read the local and international news once a day, then follow that up

with a prefered activity to get my mind off of it, I wonder am I alone in this?

Would love to hear what you think and how you feel looking back at the last few years, how it affected

you, what you let go of and what you want to add back.

Thank you for allowing me your time today and I look forward to sharing with you again soon.