Home In Hawaii

Mac has become very busy. Extremely busy. He loves to walk and run, explore and pull things apart. He loves to push things closed, too, including all doors, and sometimes his fingers are in between. I’ve been trying to keep Mac out of trouble by letting him help me whenever he can. There are some ‘jobs’ he can do. Like pick up stuff off the floor. Wipe counters with a cloth. Push the dust mop around. And uh, load the dishwasher, and that’s what Mac is doing below. Putting silverware in the caddy… along with his little black croc shoe.

Tomorrow it’ll be two weeks since we arrived and time is passing quickly. I’ve been so happy here–happier than I’ve been in years. Last summer the house was under construction. Mac was 2 months old and a screaming acid reflux mess. My hormones were wacked. I felt wacked. I’ve only recently begun to feel much, much better.

I’ll be honest–I couldn’t ‘fix’ me without getting help from my doctor. We did a physical and checked my thyroid and ran a bunch of tests. I saw a counselor and talked talked talked to the therapist and things still weren’t right because the problems weren’t all in my head. They were in my body so I worked out harder. I tried harder. And then finally went back to my family practice doctor and said, help. I still don’t feel like me, and it’s been a long long time and I miss me, and together we figured out a plan and it worked. I’m Jane again. I feel so much better and I’m writing. I’m on chapter two of the Harlequin I started last week and am really enjoying writing again. Writing is fun, and challenging, but mostly fun. I like that I get to sit down and type away and come up with a story. I like that I get paid to make up stories. I like the career I’ve worked so hard for.

Why share all this? It’s not because I’m always comfortable revealing personal things, but because I learned something important this year. I learned that it’s important to listen to ourselves, and know ourselves, and even more importantly,  to act when something doesn’t feel right. It could be a physical thing, or a mental thing. It could be an ache or pain, an energy or an emotion. It could be the mental refrain going through our heads. Either way, if we don’t feel good, we have to figure out why and we have to work on feeling better and not just accept second best. “Getting by” isn’t a solution. Getting by is just that… you’re merely getting by and it’ll get us by for a short period of time, but it shouldn’t be a way of life.

And so life is good. Not because it’s perfect. But because it feels like I’ve finally come back home.

Speaking of being back home, my assistant Lee Hyat reminded me I’ve got two galleys of She’s Gone Country to give away to two of my readers. To enter for a chance to win one of the galleys, comment below- it could be anything, you just need to post–and also be willing to share a review somewhere online after you’ve read the book. You could review at Amazon or B&N.com or at a favorite blog. It doesn’t have to be an amazing review, or a long or literary review, just an honest review because reviews do help create excitement and I could really use you on my team as we gear up for my book’s August release.

So if you’re willing to post a review, do comment  and then on Friday morning I’ll pick two names and send the winners a galley of She’s Gone Country, a Starbucks drink card, and a bunch of other fun goodies.

And thank you, everyone, for all your support.  You’ve been incredibly kind and good to me during a difficult year and a half!