Hello – It’s been quite a while since I wrote something here. Some of you may remember me as a parenting coach & workshop leader. In 2019, a few years after my kids were grown & gone, and my mom died, and my divorce was done, I decided to shift gears in a new direction: writing stories!

Soon after my decision, the Covid-19 Pandemic hit in 2020. The lockdown quarantine pushed me to be more introverted than I’d ever been before. Writing was a good friend & fit for those times. I started taking writing classes and workshops via zoom. (Yes, I was one of the privileged ones who didn’t have to be a front line worker during the pandemic. I’m forever grateful for all they did to help us survive.)

All my life since my teens, I’ve enjoyed journaling but I never really identified myself as a “writer” or an “author.” I’ve also always enjoyed being artistic, but never saw myself as an “artist.” I guess these titles made me feel I had to be really good at it, like successful authors & artists I admired. Comparison sure gets in the way of creativity, doesn’t it?

Anyway, in spite of myself, I have actually written quite a few stories over the past three years and in the process discovered I have a gift worth nurturing.

In fact, to my surprise, I found out I enjoy writing children’s stories, which led me to take a picture book writing class at UCLA. I’ve always loved the art in picture books, ever-since I read them to my kids when they were young. There’s something about the colors, the beauty, and the values taught in really good picture books that still grabs my heart and won’t let go.

So now, another shift in gears has occurred. To my dismay, I’m actually allowing that “artist”👩‍🎨 in me to come out and learn how to illustrate 🎨 🖌️ a story I wrote about mystery, wonder and awe, seen through the eyes of a wise grandmother, a curious child, and a scientific father.

I just keep showing up. One step, one word, one brush stroke at a time. It’s an amazing evolving process. Creativity is not a straight line. It’s a circular process that requires times when nothing seems to happen, & it’s easy to despair.

But it’s like a seed in the ground. It grows in its own way & time.

(Maybe my next blog will be about patience.)

It reminds me of something one of my favorite authors, Sue Monk Kidd, once said to me a few years ago. She was promoting her book, “The Book of Longings.”

“What do you do when you’re afraid of your heart’s deepest longing?” I asked her.

She said she always felt fear before she wrote a new book, but she did it anyway.

“Just keep following the thread,” she said.

That struck a cord in me.

Now whenever I doubt where I’m going, I remember ….

Just keep following the thread. ~

I invite you to keep following the thread with me as I continue on this path of creating stories that touch the hearts of children & the adults who read to them. ❤️ 📕 ❤️