I've got my coffee and a croissant and a few minutes here , so will type you a few words..
When I was doing my three years of chemotherapy, and then the months of radiation, people would say to me I was a hero and I would say I was not. There is nothing hero like, in my view, about going through those horrors -- it is more a THERE you give yourself, a thing you must do.
Years ago I met author Eudora Welty and we talked about writing. At that time I hadn't published anything, was too chicken to even send out anything with my name on it. ( I was published, but I used my husband's name which is another story for another time.)
Anyway ,back to Eudora.. she told me this:
" Writing is the THERE you give yourself. You must take the chance."
I typed up her words and taped them to the wall above my typewriter and looked at them each day when I was writing -- and from then on , all the years of my professional writing career, her words were there for me.
Using her words can be applied to anything. A diet can be the THERE you give yourself, filing for divorce, cleaning the garage, going to AA, doing something that always had you fearful.
There are a zillion things.
Does having dinner guests make you nervous? My cousin Dave does a huge party every Halloween, admits he is a nervous host, yet it is the THERE he gives himself, as he continues to host this annual party.
My friend Diane always wanted to spend time in England. She went, rented an apartment in London, stayed 6 months - toured, had a fabulous time. It was a THERE she gave herself. She took a chance on being alone in another country and she created memories now that will always make her smile.
Another friend of mine finally walked away from an abusive relationship. They'd been together nearly 30 years, most of it times when he felt the desire to beat her to a pulp. She kept hanging in, thinking tomorrow would get better but tomorrow was never the day after that day.. and then one day she gave her self the THERE, the chance she had to take, the walk away and leave everything behind, start a new life.
There are many ways we do a THERE....start a new life - -we have a child, we buy a home, we move to another city, we change jobs -- we fight diseases, we search out biological parents. We say " no", instead of "Yes" or we say " yes" instead of " no."
Tell me your THERE.
I will print them out, toss your names into a Tupperware bowl, draw a name out and the winner will get a copy of my book, " The Statue of Liberty Is Cracking Up" - one of the biggest THERE I ever did, taking a chance on writing a book.
If you already have my book, include that info in your comments to me and you'll get a copy of a book, a first edition, by someone else -- signed ,too.
Hey, let's make this fun. My daughters just ran a contest on their blog and asked the entries to also include what they had for lunch that day. It made for such a fun read.
How about if you include what you had for lunch the day you read this, even if it was a Zofran and a cup of tea cuz you are nauseated from chemo?
I'll print the comments on here so you can read the thing others consider a big THERE in their life. You don't have to give your last name,.
Deadline?
How about if you take the chance and write to me by November 20th?
Then we will do another contest.
Look, your THERE can even be taking the chance on winning this silly contest.
My THERE today was to create a contest on my blog.
Take care.
Jan
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