How do you embrace the celebration of a day you wish never came to be?

The release of my memoir on April 18, 2017, is a day that was 45 years in the making. It has been part of a plan so much bigger than mine. It's a wonder that I am here to share it with you at all.

Fifty-six years ago, a huge mistake was made. The ramifications were unequivocal, and the impact threatened to inconvenience and complicate many lives for years to come. Those in charge decided it best to destroy the evidence and carry on like it never happened. But it did. I was there, right in the middle of it.

With five young kids in tow, you were always more likely to find me in the car than in the garden. The closest I came to gardening was righting the flowers I had run over when rushing to our next destination- LATE. I always wished for a middle name; perhaps that might be fitting!

My fondness for flowers did lead to one attempt...gone awry. One early fall day I had our youngest child, Nicole next to me as I planted hyacinth bulbs along our sidewalk. I was ensconced: she had other plans. Suddenly it came to my awareness that cars were routinely honking each time they passed. Thinking she was her effusive, friendly self, I assumed she was waving. As I glanced over at her, suddenly things went south- including her clothes! Nicole had taken off everything, including her socks.

Things happen. Circumstances change. People die. Babies are born. These events are part and parcel of living. It can be so soul-enriching to assimilate these happenings into our being. And sometimes we have no choice.

My friend Meredith is a nurse midwife. I know she embraces the celebration each and every time she ushers a precious new life into the world. With a full and endearing heart, she gives all she has to make the birth experience unforgettable.

Built then broken, found, then again forgotten. It all begins with promises we made; contracts we penned with permanency in our hearts. Two souls were fallen fast in love. The romance novel delivers and does not disappoint; happily-ever-after is both expected and celebrated! But sometimes the binding on a fairy tale frays and the ending becomes even darker than a nightmare. 

I met my husband when I was 15; he was 17. The universe must have been in alignment because we gravitated towards one another immediately. There was magic; there still is. We respect one another tremendously, and we care enough to make communication a priority.  In fact, this June we will celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. 5 Kids later, we're even more in love. 

Sometimes in the middle of a lazy Sunday, a message appears on the clapboard wall of an old house. There it was. I was so intrigued by its curious innocence. This odd sight captured me. Clearly, there was a message here. 

This century-old colonial house proudly sits on Main Street in our small town. On its west side, next to an old, badly weathered door, are hunter green shutters framing what might have once been a window. Why is it absent? Did the occupants not want to peer out, or did they not want others looking in?