begin again

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I often ask myself, What is your intention? And usually it steers me in the right direction – either away from or toward an action. When I began writing the book I sat down and interviewed myself. Yep. I was my first interview. What’s your intention? I asked again. My answer was – I want to tell a multi-faceted story. I want each story to serve a greater purpose, to begin a broader conversation about diversity, acceptance, love, loss and courage. In order to accomplish this I would have to unfold a lot of wrinkles. Overtime, wrinkles can wear on your skin and your soul, causing great discomfort. Have you ever tried ironing a stubborn wrinkle? You have to press hard, use a lot of steam and water. You have to be patient as it doesn’t always come out right away.

And now that all of the writing for this book is done, I have returned to myself. My new self is different. I like her as much as I love her. She has learned about wrinkles more than she wanted, but she’s also learned what’s important and what’s not in the midst of all the pressing, and steam and water.

I’ll remember each tear that fell upon my words, but more than anything else I’ll remember the joy that ultimately found each and every word. And the dancing at the end of a writing day when I turned on Adele, Aretha, Sam Smith or Motown and the music became a joyful recognition of a word or sentence or chapter, or of myself.

THE PLACE OF US is about beginning again and again, and how that looks when applied to the realities of a life. I have fully owned the texture of my story. We are one in the same. And I am ready to begin again.

Pre-order of my memoir is available through widopublishing.com