My Community, and My Relationship with the Natural World
Two things I count on to get me through
For newly single people who were previously surrounded by large, loving families, holidays can be incredibly hard. By year seven I’m used to it, but I don’t love it. To my great surprise — and something I could never have predicted — I now have five family members living in the high desert city where I chose to “begin again” after my divorce. My niece and her fiancé moved here, first, in 2020. Then my brother and sister-in-law joined their daughter — and became grandparents when she gave birth to a beautiful, healthy, baby girl in December. The holidays were suddenly a lot more lively, and the baby, my great-niece, is thriving now. It’s especially nice that she’ll be surrounded by loving family from the very beginning.
I began writing professionally in 2007 — dedicating myself to becoming a writer in 2016, and segueing from nonfiction to fiction in 2020. I’ve participated in classes and workshops and writing groups, but for the first time in my writing life, I have a mentor. She’s wise and supportive and comes with a lifetime of experience in publishing, and I know I can count on her to give me the straight scoop. More importantly, I know she believes in me, and she’s possibly the only other human who does. Between the two of us, we’ve built a supportive…
