Vol 21: Lilacs in September?

Good morning, Friend.

Lilacs in September? Why not, right?

t's September 29 and I'm listening to Christmas music. How great our joy! Joy, joy, joy!

It's also true that I'm barely getting to the newsletter again this month. I've been mentally composing for two weeks now, but sitting down at my laptop has just not been enticing to me in recent months. Ironically, one of my writing goals for 2025 was to sneak the newsletter back a few days each month so I was sending more towards the middle of the month. C'est la vie, eh? The best laid plans, and all that.

But sometimes plans need to be back-burnered to make room for the stuff of life. I'd quote right now the infamous person who said that "life is what happens when you're busy making plans," but it's been so oft misquoted that I'm not actually sure who said it. (So maybe not actually "infamous." I know it's usually attributed to John Lennon for its popularization in Beautiful Boy, but I don't think that's where it originated.) And life has totally back-burnered just about every plan I had for 2025. As we near the final season of the year, I find my cup spilling over... spilling all over my plans. And it is beautiful.

(Speaking of burners and best laid plans and cups spilling over - my coffee maker died this month. Ironically [as it had been limping along for several weeks], it caught me off guard.)

It's okay. You know? It's okay for life to happen and derail your plans.

In my recent derails, one of the things that has tumbled together is the Lilacs project. I'd been avoiding it for some griefy reasons, but I'm happy to report we're nearing the release! If you're not familiar it, Lilacs is a passion project for me - a collection of poems and vignettes about losing my mother, the heartache and beauty of her life in those last years and months. Watching someone slowly decline is so difficult, and my hope is that this collection can serve as an encouragement to those walking through similar loss. Despair and hope, I've found, are intricately woven together.

And if you'd like, you can click below for a sneak peek at the cover, just because I like you. :)

There are other projects coming, hopefully even one or two that will make you chuckle.

That's it for September. Stay tuned for the Lilac release and how you can be involved.

From my heart to yours,

Sarah

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