Following Sal

I think I’ll cheat just a little and follow the direction of Sally’s blog written this past Wednesday, maybe like my Rusty, a dog that trails my heels everywhere I venture, heading in the same direction? Sally made me think about this past year and all we have experienced, so I decided to stick to the same subject as hers before me. First, let me say, I couldn’t have expressed better or more thoroughly Sally’s summary of this past year. She covered it well.

To begin with, I would never have predicted I’d be posting this today. Simply because I never thought we would truly pull together all the years of our friendship and stories to fit into a book. I do know a little voice inside my head kept repeating, don’t you want to gather what the group has written? Life changes directions. Better capture it now, not later. So, we discussed the goal, then made a pledge to finish a book we’d started many times before. We intended to collect our tales, bind them into one, and hold a book in our hands to place on our bookshelves. Make it a reality. And we did.

What I didn’t think of or clearly didn’t know was how many steps there were, how much sweat and determination would be necessary. For example, the website. “WHAT? We need a website?” As Sally wrote, Diana took on the difficult chore of providing the website’s framework and the three of us spent endless hours fleshing it out. Then came the blog. Of course, that felt clumsy at first, at least for me. I liked reading other blogs, but writing for ours? No way. However, throughout this past year, I’ve been learning blogging is a new avenue for expressing ourselves and though I am just a baby in this process, I truly enjoy writing Friday’s blog. Blogging regularly means I need to honor my commitment to our group. Accountability, you know.

I’ll stop here and just say it’s been quite a year and I’m thankful we decided to write our book and we’re even more grateful to you—our readers and writers. Like Sally, I hope the website and blog have been entertaining, informative, reassuring, and enjoyable. Thanks for reading our work and think I’ll stop “following Sally!”