After an indescribable year and a half, what I am about to say may not surprise. I know I just recently posted my announcement saying farewell to my writing, forever, and to all of you who have been so generously supportive. I am now doing a 180° turn. Irrational? Maybe. However, there is perhaps a reason. Or excuse.
I don’t believe in Guardian Angels and yet someone came into my life a while back who is beginning to resemble one. His name is Anthony. He doesn’t sport a pair of wings or a halo and he does not glow in the dark. We actually met on a fluke, as he was filling in for someone else to be my “computer geek” when I was in desperate need of one. We met when my life was still chaotic and I was still grief-stricken, and I gave him a pretty hard time. I pitched my frequent tearful hissy fits, unkind and unjustifiable, but Anthony calmly let the fur fly, waited for the dust to settle, and then we picked up where we had left off. His patience knew no bounds.
However, when I threw up my hands and announced I was going to quit my writing altogether, he calmly informed me that he would kick my ass from here to next Thursday if I did such a thing. Say what?! Needless to say I was taken aback. When I expressed indignation at his presumptuous threat, he repeated it, only this time more emphatically and with several colorful adjectives. Stunned by this heretofore quiet, gentle computer genius, I was momentarily speechless, an uncharacteristic trait for me and one of which I have seldom been accused.
But Anthony was serious—not about hurting me, but about hounding me to the ends of the earth if I didn’t get back to my lifelong passion: writing. At the same time I was receiving dozens of messages from readers, most of which were asking me please to not quit writing. Anthony, upon hearing of some of these messages, muttered under his breath, a couple hundred times, “I told you so.” Somehow that pushed me into thinking more about what I was doing. I believe he was right in chastising me. My Pat may be gone, but I'm still here. I am still me. My passion for writing has not changed. I still want to reach out to those fence-sitters and closet atheists to help them realize they are not alone. They have more siblings than they will ever know.
I guess then the threat of a boot in the ass was just what the doctor ordered! I have a new feeling about this as my site gets a much-needed facelift. Thank you, Anthony.
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See all of you in June, with an all-new website . . . .
