Passage of Life

I meant to send this newsletter on Monday, but life … is life. Sometimes it gets in the way. My good friend is in the hospital fighting for her life. I’ve been taking care of her for the past year and a half, and she asked me to be with her.

The prognosis does not look good. She was put on life support, and she will most likely not make it back out of the hospital. But, this woman is a warrior. And when I say warrior, I mean that she has fought all of her life. This woman has had the worst possible circumstances that you could imagine.

And yet, she smiled. And when she is your friend, your life is better for having her with you.

Her best quality is her capacity for unconditional love. Sometimes we are intentionally or unintentionally jerks. Even if the people around her were awful … and some of them were … she loved. Loved and loved. She could really teach you something about what it means to love. Her capacity for love was because she forgave everyone for their trespasses.

Even me. Because when you are friends with someone for a very long time, you commit trespasses. I was a jerk. I am a jerk. That’s just life.

She asked me to stay with her when she got the medication that would put her to sleep for the intubation procedure. The risk of this medication is that it had a high likelihood of stopping her heart. I learned that it isn’t really like the House episodes, where the doctors on that show intubate each and every episode. This is real. And with people who are sick, it can be a fatal procedure.*

That meant that it was very likely I would never talk to my friend again.

The life lesson that I learned yesterday is that you can have the worst possible circumstances, but you can still find joy and happiness. You can still smile. You can mean something to someone else. Forgive. Love unconditionally, even when people are jerks.

No matter what happens over the next few days, I know this. We will see each other again, my friend. I know you will be there waiting for me at my end, just like I was here for yours.

* It was touch and go for a while, but she made it through the intubation procedure. Now we wait.

The Book Promos

The first book today is from Audrey Walker titled Bloody Death. Audrey writes a book series featuring Detective Shelby Griffin, a bold female detective. I’ve said in the past, we need more strong female protagonists. Anyway, it’s on sale right now for 99 cents.

Also, it looks like Audrey has a bunch of upcoming releases in this series. So if you like her stuff, you can sink your teeth into more of them. (I buy all of Audrey’s books, and this book is on the reading list!)

We next have Marc Layton’s The Galston House. It’s a free download for his newsletter, so you have nothing to lose. I love the cover. The cover alone makes it worth downloading. (I joined and downloaded … it’s next on my reading list!)

Next, we have Stormsend: Saga of the Freewilds by Michael Paul Scott. This book is about Constable Lukarde Alfans, who is basically chased into the Freewilds to start his life over by a murderous cult. It’s also a free download for joining his mailing list. Also, who designed this cover? I wish I could paint like that.

Next up, we have three free giveaway promos!

First we have Warriors for Good. Let’s fight some justice, shall we? These books feature characters who are fighters of justice and fairness.

Next is the Mid-Month Humor Giveaway. As the name implies, these are stories and books that feature the funny.

Want something paranormal? We have a giveaway for that, too. I love these giveaways. I love reading the paranormal. Queue Stephen King, amirite?

Happenings

These past two weeks, I did a lot of work on my older site, the sewing one (Let Go of Being Perfect). If you like to sew, you can head over to grab your free bunny bag pattern. The download requires that you sign up to the mailing list. If you are already on the list, don’t worry. You won’t get twice the amount of emails!

I also wrote a bunch of informational articles on sewing machines and stuff if you wanted to poke around. But sewing machines aren’t too exciting. I am, however, learning about the dreaded SEO … or at least, learning more. If you are interested, I’ve been watching Income School.

I’m totally jamming out to the Southern Rock band Lake Street Dive titled Good Kisser, introduced to me when I was in Florida.

I’m still reading The Final Case by David Guterson, and the review will be on the blawg soon. It’s a terrible story. Both the premise (the abuse of a child) and the writing (I’ll never understand stream of consciousness, okay).

All About Sami and Angel

One of the newsletter’s readers sent in several pictures of her pups and kitties. I loved all of them, and I am excited to share this picture with you today. It reminded me of the times my friend and I would share, being happy and silly. Sami and Angel’s owner wrote this:

Then there are the dachshunds…those were taken in 2005. I had them for 10 years; they lived to 15. They were sisters from the same litter.