Credits: Good Reads by Aprilisa Designs, (freebie word art came without TOUs)


Journaling:


Journal continued:


The plot hasn’t always been a great one. When my mother’s book ended after only 58 chapters, I thought the character of my book would never be the same. And for a while it wasn’t. In our bookcase of family, each book is so dependent on the books of friends and relatives for story ideas and the passion that makes us all great writers. We have many cowriters in the books of our lives and we co-write in chapters of many others. I was in Chapter 37 when my mother’s book ended, but you’d think I was in Chapter 3 and not able to write for myself for a couple of pages. It was one thing that I did in tribute to Mom’s book, a club I joined in her memory in my Chapter 38, which set my book on a coffee table next to another book I couldn’t put down. Mom’s book lead me to so many other great books through my chapters, of course her story’s effects on me still would! It’s a book Mom never read, but she would have loved the book being written by the man who became her son-in-law.


My book has had many twists and turns, Chapter 42 was the fun of eloping and surprising family along with steamy romance of newlywed life, but chapter 43 was a sad chapter of profound loss as 7 books in my bookcase became complete; one was one of my closest friends, John, after only 50 chapters and my grandmother and mother-in-law, both after 84.


As I move forward with writing my life story, through some books have ended and their authors no longer co-write any pages with me, the stories are still mostly good. They are filled with new endeavors and new ideas. There are new collaborators and new views from faithful coconspirators in my life’s capers. I have new challenges all the time which make for interesting and sometimes exciting stories as I face them and come out on top, which I usually do in one aspect or another. An optimist’s life story is an inspiring and fun read!


Age is a mindset. We ultimately don’t choose how long our books will be and we don’t always control what there will be going on to write about, but we do control how the story is told. The longer your book is the more cowriters you have and the more can fill it with your own history. We decide if it will be a happy, inspirational and strong book, a dark and brooding book or something in between. However you write it, like any book good or bad, it is part of the library of the world and will leave its mark on everyone who reads it.



Bottom:


A lot of people have said I look younger than I am, but really I look at photos and see the age progression as it should be. I look a decade older now than I did when I was 37!