February 22, 2019 YOU SHOULD BE HERE

Is it a woman thing? This need to make EVERY thing better? Fix things? Keep everybody happy? I'm not sure. What I'm sure of though is that I don't have SUPERPOWERS and I can't make everything OK. None of us can and that pisses me off.  Death seems to lurk behind every door these days.  And there's nothing we can do about it. If I could--I'd wish it all away and everything would be back to normal.  Instead-- loved ones are struggling--learning to live their NEW normal. What the hell is that anyways?? I don't know. None of us knows --until it happens to us. I think that's what I've been wrestling with this week. How quickly our lives CAN change AND it scares the HELL out of me. Our beautiful friend is gone. She was a mother, sister, wife, aunt, cousin.  One person who touched  many lives. Family and friends are grieving and there's not a DAMN thing any of us can do about it. Or can we? We can grieve together--be there for each other--keep her memory alive. That's what we'll do. I feel better already.
  I just finished Night of Miracles --the sequel to Elizabeth's Berg's novel The Story or Arthur Truluv and I really enjoyed it. Set in Mason, Missouri, five years after Arthur dies, Lucille is now operating a successful baking business. Because she's getting older, Lucille decides to hire part-time help--a new woman in town named Iris Winters. Lucille also has new neighbors--a family of three whose future is in jeopardy when the mother becomes ill.  There are several other quirky characters including the taxi driver Tiny, who is actually quite large, and Monica, the waitress who works at Henhouse, that he is in love with. This is the story of a small town, friendship, kindness and how a community comes together to help during a crisis. It's also about human connections--something I fear many of us are losing in our "modern world". This book is about 250 pages or an easy 3 mile jaunt through the park. This feel good book was just what the doctor ordered. Enjoy.