12.5.11

Remember the Velveteen Rabbit?

I just spent several days on the road with my youngest sister and her two little girls, Greta Jo and Clara Louise. Though I took a chapter of Judith with me for hand editing, by day's end . . .

No, well before noon, I was too wiped out for even minimal mental effort. There's a reason parents are often in their twenties or thirties. At 51 I suppose I qualify as a Grandmother/Aunt! Anyway, for the first time in months Judith took a back seat in my consciousness for more than a week. My writer self sat beside her.

When I checked my email on my return, guess what was waiting for me? Proofs of the cover for my memoir, Love is the Thread. Remember the Velveteen Rabbit? Talk about becoming real. After weeks absorbed in the novel in progress, and then days out of the creative loop, those images brought the reality that my life as a writer is truly unfolding.

Now it's time to get back to Judith. She's part of that reality, too.