Schizophrenic Kaffeeklatsch

The Prompt: Present-day you meets 10-years-ago you for coffee. Share with your younger self the most challenging thing, the most rewarding thing, and the most fun thing they have to look forward to.

You are going to write a book based on your husband’s death, grief recovery and building a new life, so don’t throw away those journals, logs and papers you are thinking of ridding yourself of. And, continue to keep those journals! It will be the biggest challenge of your life, but after eight years, then three additional years of compiling and writing and collaboration with a clinical psychologist, they will end up as a book.

In a few years, though many of your present friends will move away or pass away, new friends will come into your life with whom you’ll share closeness, epic Mexican Train games, and the most laughter you’ve ever experienced in your life. Eventually, they, too, will all move away and after a year of much reflection and some depression, you’ll again find a group of friends with whom you feel comfortable and who again prompt the laughter you miss so much. During your life, this ebb and flow will probably continue, reminding you that life will always be something you have to work for. But it will be worth it. The fun will continue to stream into your life if you continue to provide the energy to help make it happen.

You will eventually reach that stage you have always yearned for. You will make writing a priority and write every day, doing it your own way, as always. It is probable that you will always be your own agent, publisher and distribution manager and most of your energies will, as in the past, go into the writing and production of many books, but you will have produced something that will go on after you in the way that your own personality demands. In the end, all of our little efforts will lead to the same end. Hopefully, life will continue to be interesting and you will not fear letting go of what you have to reach for the next adventure in life.