
I took a break from social media, blogging, and everything bookish, marketing, and publishing-wise these last few days to spend time with family for the first time since Christmas. We gathered outside on the 4th at the home farm, which my nephew and his wife own now.
The color of the house has changed, the barn sported a new metal roof instead of the green shingle one I remember, different tractors sat in the machine shed, and the yard displayed new trees. But yet my memories of so many good days spent with my parents—they passed some time ago—and my siblings remain.
Things change. Life moves on. We lose people and gain them. I have great nieces and nephews who have grown so much since I’ve seen them last. I’d like to get to know them better, but they live on one side of our state, and I live on the other. I typically go visit only a few times a year, my health being as it is, making travel a bit more challenging.
I’ve come to the realization that you can never go back, returning to yesteryear. I suppose that’s as it should be. All things grow and change over time, including me. I am not the same person as that little ten-year-old me traipsing around the farm. Oh, I suppose in some ways we are similar. In others we differ. I know more, have seen more, experienced more. My choices through these channels have made me . . . me, and I wouldn’t go backwards even if I could.
Life is good, even now with its brokenness and pain and all the more precious because of it.
I just gave birth to my third novel, SILVER MOON, last week, and launched it into the world. Now, I can hardly believe I must turn around and bear another book baby. I have to get my fourth book to my editor this week. I’m giving it one more read through before I do. In my reading tonight, I left off at this quote…
To live or have loved,
That is enough.
Ask nothing further,
There is no other pearl
To be found in the
Dark folds of life.
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
Life is precious; love is enough and the most we can ask for. In this aspect, I can be content, despite my health or how many books I sell or don’t sell, that agent I wish I had, or any number of things. I’ve lived a good life, been loved and have loved, past and present. I have been and am blessed.
I hope you can say the same.
Blessings, J

Visit my purchase page and select the respective iPhone images to take you to the sales pages.
NOTE: The Kindle copies of Ruby Moon and Blue Moon are $3.99. Through a number of different retailers, including Apple Books they are $.99.
Such a good reminder and encouragement! Moving forward is exciting, sometimes scary, and looking backwards comes with nostalgia but also regrets. Both are bittersweet. But seeing how God has weaved His love through all of it washes my soul anew in the refreshment of His hope.
Absolutely! Thank goodness for His ever-present hand through it all.