TODAY'S MESSAGE
This is me shortly after I awakened this morning: busy little bee, head down (deep down) working. Buried in work, if you will.
Since writing is my labor, a labor I *LOVE,* this isn't a bad thing. It is good to HAVE labor! But today--a special day (book release day), a day I should be CELEBRATING and not working--the whole forecast for my "moment in the sun" feels gloomy.
ME:
My new book comes out today and I am alone. Writing. I don't even have a lunch date. (Sniffle.) After this long, strenuous countdown, the ball finally drops, and ... Silence. Nothing. Work, work, work.
(Ever been there?)
Lost in the shadows. Buried in busy. Poor me.
Today, head down (deep down), pity party grabbing hold, I barely remember the GLORY of the past week. Stray Affections was on a fabulous pre-publication blog tour, complete with lots of "stops" and preparations by the dedicated and hard working folks at Waterbrook, my ab-fab publisher. The book received dozens of accolades written by gifted bloggers.
No, I don' think about that incredible gift this morning. I dwell on the pity party that swells within as I continue to feed The Pathetic every morsel of poor me I can manufacture--until the gi-normous beast finally erupts out of my eyeballs in a crying meltdown.
Snot. Blurred vision. High-jacked brain. Can't write.
I physically and mentally step away from my manuscript and moaning (cease and distract) and decide to spend a few moments flipping through the dozens of digital photos I shot this week of the morning glories outside my window. I've never seen a more magnificent display. All different colors and sizes, each bloom vying for its brief moment in the sun.
I stop at the picture of the pink flower (above) with the bee buried in the center. As I study its silky bright fragileness and ponder the bee's diligent determination to dive down (deep down) into its mysterious pollinating forces, a spiritual quickening catches my Whaaaa-ing breath. I recognize anew (again and again and again): I am not really alone. I AM is here in the midst of this outlandish beauty, Divinely blessing the fruits of even the tiniest endeavors.
I sniffle, smile. Give a shout out to the cows that just lumbered up the hill. I check my email and .... OH! I find several CONGRATULATIONS! messages from my agent, my editor, friends, readers ...a beautiful, tender, sweet CONGRATULATIONS note from my husband, each arriving as a direct tap on my shoulder from God. See. The Great I AM, here in the midst of the labor, the beauty, the love and the friendships, the seen and the unseen--the pity party.
Thank you, Lord.
Right after my prayer of gratitude, the phone rings. It is a friend who wants to know if I can do a last-minute lunch. (Yes! Oh, YES!) She is unaware it is book release day. She said she was just thinking about me.
And this is how God works.
Throughout my years as an author (and before that as a den mother, wife, mom, friend, daughter, and now as Grannie B), I have received countless notes and words of encouragement. (Think about the times you've received a card or call, or a hug or a smile, just when you needed one the most.) I keep them in files and boxes, or simply tucked away in my Memory Portfolio. (Today's experience is a fabulous new submission.) I sometimes pull them out and allow their affirmations to wash over and through me. (...glad you're my mom, it cracked me up when ..., happy birthday, happy anniversary, congratulations, in sympathy, just thinking about you ...)
Yes, Book Release Day is "something," but it is not the sum total my LIFE. Neither is a momentary pity party. So right now, I am taking time to declare the magnificent Presence and community of God, beauty, friends, TwinkleGrammers, relatives, and strangers who have or will one day smile at you and me, and I shout at the top of my lungs: The lame pity party is OVER! (Declare it along with me, if you're in a pity party yourself, but perhaps quietly, if you're at work. ;>)) I herewith remind you of the happy news that we are in this life together. No one is alone. No moment is all of it.
Like the busy bee, I shall now spend the rest of my day head down (deep down) amidst beauty and story, and the cross pollination of love and insight they render when we are wakeful enough to receive it. I AM is on duty and life's party rocks on!
AMEN!
Know someone who's party is currently pitiful?
