The Good News That Made The Year

A Moment To Say Thank You, Before I Return To Stories

autumn leaves

I wanted to write this note to you, maybe you’re reading it by email, or by going to this page, or maybe found me because of a recommendation or by accident. Perhaps someone shares it with a glancing tip of a device screen. However you found me, thank you, I hope you’ll consider staying a bit, at least long enough to read this note.

You see, many good things happened this year.

I’ll begin with the most recent and the most important. My mother had a second scan after a medical appointment, and the result was “normal" and “benign”. A few weeks ago, a long-time doctor was fast to text over the paperwork, in two early morning texts, and the earliest appointment was yesterday.

Twenty-four hours before I’m typing these words, I was half-awake. I did not sleep. I was bracing for something else, a return of different kinds of times.

Four years ago, a week before today, my dad had to go to the hospital, the first of three emergency calls. November 2019 to January 2021 was a very different time. Outside, the world had gone upside-down, inside-out, in different, sad and strange ways. Inside, we tried to bring back the man who gave me life, to his senses and himself. We took care of him, every day. He became bedridden, his mind was fading. It was hardest in those final months. We lost him bit by bit, and by November 2020, the end was near.

After we laid Dad to rest in January, in a beautiful place, where there are trees nearby, and running water each Spring, that evening I wrote something. Not about Dad, there was no mention of what happened and what it was like. I wrote about love and life, “Love Is Not A Single Player Game”. It was for me. Some people read it, and told me it made them feel better, and that they could sleep that evening. I wasn’t expecting that.

Anyway, I kept writing. Another writer friend reached out to me by loom video and told me I should write a story. I took him at his word to write, but it was for me.

Thirty days in a row, over and over, six times over, with one writing community, posting hundreds of words daily, with music, and home-made images. It’s still all there, a draft on a social network, in Spotify playlists, Canva images, Typeshare and Mirror posts. A book was born but I didn’t know it at the time.

I didn’t want my story to end, and by that, I meant my writing, what I was doing.

I started writing a second book, created this “Substack” as part of joining a new writing community, started by my friend Tom, and finished writing a second book just before last Thanksgiving. The last thirty chapters are posted on a “page” here. It was thirty days in a row, four times over, for a “prequel”. This year, I began a third, and I’m finishing it as you read these words, hopefully by mid-December, in a few weeks.

You’re here because someone you’ve never met felt something from my words, over thirty months ago, and was generous enough to send a video message about it.

I’m here, because that feeling never went away. It filled the empty space I had inside.

I was grateful for the father I had, the mother I still have, the brother who helped keep us safe, and still does, and the friends I made along the way. And I’m grateful for you who took a moment to read anything I wrote, and then invested time in a note, or a “like”, or a share. You didn’t have to, but it meant a lot.

I really wish for you, all of you, this feeling I have, and I hope nothing ever takes it from you. I feel fortunate.

The story of me includes a new chapter.

Something I wrote here inspired a feeling, that led to someone sharing it, and then to a new friend, Jim. Jim and I talked, and I was just glad, truly glad, to make a new friend. Jim introduced me to another friend, Michael, and they both wanted to help publish my words.

I miss my Dad, a lot, but Mom is doing okay, and she’s planned a roast for the oven, and I will help later.

I have to go in a few minutes, Jim and Michael’s friend, Dylan, he’s going to call me soon. We have edits to do for the book.

I wish you all a great day.