New Normal and God's Blessing

After experiencing a tumultuous year of death from 2015 to 2016, I live a life of "new normal." Things that once gave me joy don't necessarily feel the same because I can't share it with the people I loved and lost. Namely, my best friend of 22 years, Wanda Williams, who God gifted to me as my big sister who went home August 2015 followed by both my grandparents, Maggie and Booker Passmore, who died in October two weeks after one another. Somehow putting pen to paper was cathartic and makes it feel a little bit better!

In the midst of loss, I gained a new friend named Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Editor and Contributing Author. She befriended me straight off and after knowing her for about two years----- just from working together on the job she asked me in December if I would write a chapter in book she was writing.

I was honored and taken aback that she felt she knew me well enough to think I had something to contribute.

Writing my chapter in U.G.L.Y. sparked a bug in me that has moved me to a commitment to publishing Grandma's story in 2017. Well, my next book What's Funny About Dementia is a memoir of my experience as a caregiver for my grandmother who survived and lived with Alzheimer's from 2002, her legal diagnosis to 2015 when she died of pneumonia.

That book has been written many years ago, but I held on to it for perfection. I held on to just add one more thing and missed my opportunity to see her smile again to show her how much I loved her.

My biggest regret is that I didn't get to publish it before my Grandma transitioned home and that hurts me more than anything because it was and is a gift to her for the life she gave me as a loving, doting, kind, gentle and God-fearing woman.

I will tell Maggie's story in just a few weeks to an audience of about 200 to 300 people and again in an individual workshop. So even though she is not here in the physical, she is in my heart.

I thank Sharva for selecting me to be a "Woman of Ushindi" and allowing me to share my story of triumph over the "bads" in my life because joy did come in the morning for me on many days.

I hope that you find my journey helpful to you or someone in your life so that they can see their way out of nowhere just as I did. Thank you Sharva for helping me find my joy again.

Peace and blessings to the heart, mind and soul!

Jataun

https://www.itsthespiritoflove.com/ is the site you can pre-order your copy of U. G. L. Y. Uncovering God Love's For You which will be available April 2017.