Bridges (Human and Otherwise)

July 9, 2017

Yesterday was my husband’s and my 39th wedding anniversary. That alone made it a great day. I spent most of the morning on Facebook saying thank you to family and friends who were there way back when and who have continued to love us ever since. I am grateful for them and all who have come into our lives since then.

Us Then – photo credit Richard Scardamalia

Enjoyed Hubby’s sausage biscuits and we spent a beautiful morning together.

Hubby went to run errands and I went to hear a Twitter friend speak at an event at the Orange County Library in downtown Orlando, Florida (the last time I was there was a while back when I played the Queen of Hearts in a production of Alice in Wonderland).

I didn’t realize my Twitter friend was famous (though I got my first clue when he asked on Twitter something along the lines of “Hey folks, which of my books have you read and which is your favorite?”)

Cool! Dude wrote a book and got it published. Then he did it again. I put him on my TBR (to be read) list behind the other 50 bazillion books I’ve picked up/been given (everyone knows they cannot go wrong giving me a book – so they do – God bless them – for real).

I have a lot of books (one entire room has built in bookshelves – part of why I fell in love with this house). I also keep four library books (2 audio, 2 ebooks) in rotation on my phone at all times (love the Overdrive app!) I would have more, but the library treats me the way a bartender treats a too-drunk patron “Cynthia, you’ve reached your limit. You can’t read every book in the world in 21 days.”

Yet.

So there I was at the library waiting for my Twitter friend to speak.

Jonathan Maberry at Orlando Book Festival

Turns out he’s been on the New York Times best seller list and my book pile count is now 50 bazillion and 1.

This one went to the top of the pile #Sleep-deprived #GoodReason

Jonathan gave a great talk which was exactly what I needed to hear at exactly the time I needed to hear it (which was the very day I had already figured out what I needed to do, just had no idea how to do it). Thank you, Universe!

Two things he said stuck with me: 1) write the book you want to read (which I’ve heard before and is usually followed by “but you need to write this way to sell.”) Jonathan didn’t say that. Instead he gave examples of how he does it. “Write the book you want to read” holds immense power when it comes from a guy who’s actually done it and continues to do it. 2) Don’t let them pigeonhole you. Write what you want.

These gems were passed on to Jonathan from writers who shared what they knew with him. One of these writers was Ray Bradbury (!). Another was Richard Matheson (!!).

It worked for Ray and Richard.

It’s working for Jonathan now.

No reason why it shouldn’t work for us (!!!).

After a wonderful anniversary dinner out with Hubby, I went to a gathering of creative friends.

We first met years ago in an Artist’s Way group. Several of us clicked and met later on to do another Julia Cameron book (Vein of Gold). (for more on this adventure go here).

We gathered last night to hug and catch up with our friend Tori because she lives in Dubai now and we have to grab her when we can. It’s difficult to get all of us together at once. Lillian (artist/photographer) lives far away now (but not as far as Tori) and Shari was on vacation with her family. We laugh at how we often show up in sevens (The Magnificent Seven is our theme song).

(L to R) Lindsay (artist), Elle (poet & birthday buddy), Cheryl (artist and Artist Way facilitator who brought us all together in the first place), Maureen (artist and sculptor), Tori (fine artist/actress), Me (writer/screenwriter/actress/musician/singer), Liz (artist)

We may not see each other as often as we like (which we made a solemn vow to fix…well, as solemn as we could get on a full-moon late Saturday night over pretzels and dip, sangria, vodka cocktails, some kick butt chocolate date thing Tori brought, fruit, and fudge stripe cookies).

I don’t have a physical bridge picture to show, but humans are bridges too – to our past and our future: our parents, our siblings, our children, our friends, other professionals who have already bridged the gap themselves and have the grace to stand on the other side and say “Here’s how I did it. Come on over.”

Here’s to building our bridges – over water, over land, to each other.

For more on this challenge go here