You’re never quite prepared to say, “Good-bye”,…

You’re never quite prepared to say, “Good-bye”, to someone you love and cherish to have around,… human or animal, our loved ones enrich our lives…

When the week of the 19th of May first dawned, I thought that my beloved tabby whose name rhymes with Beta, was going to pull through and make a turnabout in his fight to live. With my heart and head still consumed by grief and the loss that overtakes anyone whose experienced a similar loss can attest too, you tend to find things to fill in the consuming voids of time. Its hard not to notice the hours as they click off on the clock, as I remember the first hour, the second hour, and the third as he first passed. Then, it was the twelfth hour and the twenty-eighth, which is when I asked my head to stop ‘noticing’,… to allow time to fold back in on itself, and away from my eyes seeing the advancement of Time’s progression. One of the curious things that alighted in my mind to do was to re-open my Tuesday’s Shelf Awareness newsletter which was barely acknowledged when it originally arrived. The only bits of it that even interested me were the adverts at the bottom, as the crust of the content wobbled my head a bit, as you need a clearer mind than the one I have to digest what your reading!

This is when I saw the advert for “Sleeping in Eden” by Nicole Baart, whose last name struck a bell of recognition but the cloudy mess I was in I couldn’t begin to ascertain as to ‘why’,… I clicked over to her personal website, read the blurb for the novel, which interested me, and then, I clicked the curious little icon that would lead me to Vimeo {a platform I sort of prefer over YouTube}, and to this lovely little video about Ms. Baart’s writing life.

Nicole’s Personal Video by Todd Montsma

{I originally was going to encourage you to click the link, as I could not sort out how to embed the video to my blog, as a ‘share url’ box was not visible; until I read through the help sections for WordPress and realised Vimeo automatically embeds via the video url! Blogging is a perpetual learning curve!}

After the video concluded I tossed my hat into the contest, but that was only half of it, the video itself lifted my spirits if only for a short few minutes. I go through waves of emotion, where my heart grieves, my mind remembers his presence, and I will myself to remember he’s at peace, he’s in a better place, and his spirit will carry on with me through my tomorrow’s as all companions who enrich our lives with their love, their warmth, and their quirky personalities do. He had a penchant for vocality that was loss to him in the ending chapter of his life. He became a bit too silent, too soft spoken, and yet, in his enduring strength to overcome the plight he faced, his indomitable courage shined. He taught us so many things whilst he was here, eight years and four months shy of his ninth birthday. The greatest of all, I should think, is a calming of spirit inside adversity and a stealth of patience during the in-between. His gentleness and loving affection will remain with me always,…

As I was saying “Good-bye“, whilst he lived his last days, these were the events only a few weeks prior I had been itching to attend. How quickly life can alter our plans,…

Booktalk Nation : The Missed Events

• Nathaniel Philbrick ~ Tuesday, 21st of May, 2013 at 7:00pm (EST)
• Book Featured: Bunker Hill: A city, a siege, a revolution
• Moderated by: Tony Horwitz

Question I proposed: Mr. Philbrick, What was the originating inspiration to dig into the history of the battle at Bunker Hill which ignited the Revolutionary War? And, how were you so fortunate to uncover not only new information that is pertinent, but wholly new to the readers who will read your book with a solidified appreciation of the history as it was previously known!?

• Susanna Kearsley ~ Wednesday, 22nd of May, 2013 at 7:00pm (EST)
• Book Featured: The Firebrand
• Moderated by: Karen Holt

Question I proposed: Since your novel The Firebrand delves into the gift of Sight, what do you think draws you and your readers into stories that are touched with an element of the paranormal that can assimilate into the storyline as one readily breathes!? As though the element is organic in nature, and not an addition but rather a natural component!?

I’ll never know if my questions were read aloud during the events OR what inspiring bits of knowledge I would have gleamed from them, as I am finding that each author event that I attend through *Booktalk Nation*, is simply that ~ a way to broaden my horizons through getting to know the eclectically lovely authors that they host by way of phone and video telecast events! Instead, I am simply going to see if I can fetch these particular books through my library, and glisten a bit more insight into the authors through their stories,… as to me, that is always the first door that opens that leads us to understanding the person behind the pen!

Life is a constant balance of heartache and calm. I will regain my joy of reading and of blogging. I will find the light that shines through my posts on regularly read blogs, as I recapture what leads me to visit with the authors and bloggers who populate them. Right now, all of it feels too oppressive and evading. I want to pull back and withdraw and I shall. When I re-emerge I’ll feel lighter and more at peace with his passing than I do now with a heart bled open and raw from the pain of his passing.

{SOURCE: The video of Nicole Baart’s writing life by Todd Montsma had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post and I thank them for this opportunity to share this uplifting video that helped me through a very difficult time.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2013.