When my husband Bob and I bought a house in Mexico in 2001, little did we know I would be moving into it without him. We had our moving sale in the states and packed up our van, but three days before we were due to begin our journey down to our new home, we discovered he had pancreatic cancer. He lived for three weeks. That is how, 2 months later, I came to be lying alone on an air mattress in an empty house in a country where I knew neither a soul nor the language.

I wrote a book based on my first 8 years after his death and originally, I thought this blog would be about grief–how it expresses itself, how I responded to it and how I came to realize that it is a powerful agent for growth and change.  Very quickly, however,  the scope of what the blog encompasses grew beyond my initial purposes. Rather than a blog to help people deal with death, it seems to have become a blog to enable myself and others to deal with life.

A big part of this change was initially due to my participation in National Poetry Writing Month, wherein I published a poem a day for a month.  That led to postings about my life in general, which is why I  changed the name of my blog to “Lifelessons.” I have stated before, but I’ll say again that it is mainly myself that I am teaching through my posts. There is a part of me I never communicate with unless I’m writing, and that is a big motivation keeping me going.

After NaPoWriMo in 2013, I decided I wanted to continue to write and post every day and I have done so with  only one exception (when I spilled a Coke on my computer and was without internet access for a day or two) since April 1 of 2014. Since then I have also begun daily postings to several photo prompts as well and I’m now in search of a support group for addictive bloggers!  (That is mainly a joke.)

Soon I also hope to add a section that shows my sculpture, retablos and other art work.  Life changes and changes.  So will this blog.