Hi there!
So much has been happening. My new book, Lake Lessons: A Journey Towards Joy, will be released tomorrow on Mother’s Day, May 9. I feel a little stunned and very excited about the launch.
On the evening of March 17, I was working with my eduprenuer coach (yes, it is a thing) on Zoom. I had finished several of the tasks she had encouraged me to do over prior few weeks. That night she said, “What do you want to work on next. I bet we could get your new book finished. I’d love to work on it with you.” I stared at her. What new book? Huh?
The next morning, I texted her a photo of something I had come across in my morning routine of reading. It felt like the confirmation of what I knew the minute I had woken up that day. It is from Dancing in the Empty Spaces by David O. Rankin
Waking Up!
How often I want to shout:
“Every moment is a sacred moment!” To grab people, turn them around, upside down, and pull them out of mundaneness, screaming, “Every moment is a sacred moment!”
For it will not come again.
Under the photo I wrote, "Let’s do it! Lake Lessons."
Then, whoosh, it began to pour out of me. From the moment I woke, until my eyes couldn’t take it anymore, usually around ten at night. I would sit at my desk and reread old journals, sort through past blogs, and write new things. I would set a timer in my kitchen for an hour and get back to work. That way I had to get up and move to turn off the timer. Then I’d reset it and go start again. It was astonishing. This lasted for three weeks or so.
What I wrote startled me. It is the story of buying my cottage, the Treehouse, with friends during the darkness of grief and what I have learned from that time on the lake and in nature on that journey to where I am, who I am, today. Since my last book, Angels in My Classroom: How Second Graders Saved My Life, was also about grief, I was surprised to find that was again at the core of the book. Not that I’m “over it.” Grief doesn’t work like that. Therefore, saying it was easy to write isn’t exactly accurate. I sent a lot of love to the Lee-Ann of the past. There were lot of hot tears, and moments of grief that slammed me to the wall. But my muse, Smarty Star, wasn’t letting go.
Now, I have my copy sitting next to me, less than a day from the official launch. I look at it and wonder, “Where did you come from?” It is a crazy labor of love, that clearly was brewing in my heart, waiting for someone to say, “You can write your new book” to make it pour out.
I hope you like it and find something within it to connect to your soul.
Here is the link to purchase it. https://www.amazon.com/Lake-Lessons-Journey-Towards-Joy/dp/B093KPVNTP/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=lake+lessons&qid=1620498073&sr=8-7
All my love,
Lee-Ann
PS Thank you, Meredith Newlin. You saw that book within me, right at the surface, when I didn’t know it was there. If no one else tells you today, you freaking rock!