It’s funny how a name can shape your perspective of the world around you. As I experiment with sharing my life, I have already shifted my perspective of what stories to tell and how to tell them. I’ve survived the anxiety of sending my words into the great beyond hoping for a sign that someone found them entertaining or helpful. (That is truly terrifying, by the way.) I have decided instead to stay true to my original intention of easing my own mind through sharing what I need to share, rather than crafting things that should be shared. In other words, write what you know. Be who you are.

So I am restarting this collection of stories under a new name that will echo why I felt like sharing to begin with. I am so lucky to be where I am in this life and have so many opportunities. We have overcome plenty of obstacles and will face many more. We always make it, most often barely in tact, but we’re still here. After years of being down, up, and down again, we’ve finally hit our jackpot. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to keep that perspective with my writing. It’s the simple version of my mantra when times are not what I hope them to be:

I’m lucky to have what I have: a roof over my head, food on my table and a family that loves and respects each other.

Well, the toddler and the cat are working on that last bit, but there’s still time.

The first batch of stories will stay, because you can’t change your past or who you have been and they are a reminder of how to accept the parts you don’t always like. Hopefully there will be lots of shiny and happy for everyone, but life is about balance and it doesn’t always tip in our favor. What happens from now will take it’s own shape, and will undoubtedly involve the struggles of trying to live the dream in the great US of A, celebrations of accomplishments great and small and sharing a thing or two I’ve learned along the way.

If you’re up for a good story, I hope you’ll join me.