More often than not, I write stories and tie up the ending with a big bright beautiful bow.

Here’s what we can all take away!!

This is my MESSAGE!

And I hope I never make any of my readers feel alone. Or less than. Or like they aren’t doing it right because there doesn’t seem to be a ribbon tied around their story.

WHERE’S THE BOW???

Here’s the real reason I share my writing with the world…

I hope you never feel alone.

I hope you stop chasing perfection.

I hope you realize life is ordinary, mostly.

And I hope we ALL stop assuming once this or that happens, we’ll finally be happy. Forever.

Listen to my story…

Once upon a time my husband was an active addict, and I was often miserable. So often our family life was miserable, and I desperately needed change.

I wanted a sober husband. A family filled with children. And a chance to breathe away from a job that kept me drowning.

And most of those prayers were answered beyond my wildest dreams.

A decade later, I have a sober husband and five healthy children and I’m working so very part time I’m not even sure it counts.

Praise God.

That’s my bow.

But can I tell you another story or two??

Sometimes I’m so sad and lonely and unsure at the end of a long day I sob fat, wet tears into my pillow.

I am healing childhood trauma. My motherhood is harder than I ever thought it would be. I am constantly unsure about my career path.

And sometimes I get so angry my blood boils and a deep purple vein sticks out in my forehead and I say exactly the wrong thing and absolutely LOSE IT.

Like the time I slammed out the back door and a frame vaulted off the wall and shattered glass all over the wood floor. Ironically the picture inside read, “Our Happy Home.”

And our home IS happy. Usually.

I am SO grateful. Mostly.

But sometimes, I can be so very human, too.

And life is hard.

It is HARD, you guys.

But that doesn’t mean we’re doing it wrong, it just means we are living.

It means we are human.

And this life???

It’s hard. For all of us.

Some days, there’s just no bow.

The End.

Now, soldier on fellow humans.