Just wanted to jump here to wish everyone a (belated) happy New Year! 🙂 Hello, 2021!!
As for a story update, Illusory is finally in the last steps of the editing process. I’ll be announcing the release date towards the end of this month/beginning of next month, so keep a look out! 😀
Anyways, the other reason I’m posting is because I ran across the below quote recently that I think needs sharing, especially since we’re at the start of a brand new year:
2020 in retrospect was a shit show, but all jokes aside it was a very heartbreaking year. I know people who lost their jobs and their loved ones. I know of people who succumbed to COVID, leaving their families devastated and angry. I also know of some who took their own lives, and one who took a life with them. I also lost both my great-grandmother and an old friend last year, though neither one from COVID. A few of my relatives did contract the virus, but are thankfully beating it, one being my 91-year-old grandfather. ❤
We all struggled, fought, cried, and lost battles last year. And while it was a very isolating experience, there was hope in the fact that all this turmoil was affecting everyone. No one was really alone; we all suffered in some way or another. That’s why I like that above quote: it brings hope, because with endings come beginnings. While it feels like there can be no new beginning after losing someone, whether they passed away or moved on without you, there is still hope in the fact that the pain will subside over time and we can learn to live with our grief. There is hope when losing a job, a home, material items. It’s scary and traumatic in itself, but its not the end. That’s where the new beginnings lie: in the unknown, among those painful moments that leave us shattered. How are those beautiful stained glass windows made? Jagged pieces of broken glass, my friends. Broken fragments that are made into something new.
2021 will not change our lives all at once, and it may end up being just a Part Two of 2020. But since some of the painful endings have occurred, it’s now time to start those new beginnings. It’s time to look ahead, to take the happy memories with us, and leave the rest of it behind so we can begin again.
So here’s to you, dear reader. May you stay safe, stay healthy, and stay reading this year, because I have a book on the way I’m dying for you to meet. 😉 Cheers! *pop fizz clink*
A. M. Dunnewin 