Merry Christmas -A House, A Book & A Music Album

The book and my music album are live on Amazon.com. And you can listen to my music on Spotify or other streaming services. What a crazy year this has been. I started this year of 2021 knowing I needed a new direction and not exactly knowing what that would be. But, in January a concussion brought much rest into my life. And I decided to take the leap and self-publish my children's book. And as I got into the process, I realized how much I like writing children's stories and that rhyming is fun. So, I finished this year with more stories in the draft process.

My one goal for this year, which I thought of by Christmas last year, was to record and digitally release a music album. And I did complete 5 songs for that. It's a meditative music album dedicated to those who have gone through loss or infertility. As I was working on my own songs, two hymns that I created for online church services kept coming into my playlist. I realized they needed to be part of the set of songs. So that's where -De Noche Iremos- and -I have called you by your name- got snuck into the songs. And, as the order of the songs kept switching around, eventually the song titles themselves created a whole message. It all kind of came together in a beautiful synchronicity. Read more about the music album here.

I had a realization that last winter was one of the best for me since arriving in Sweden, in regards to dealing with the darkness. I realized that when I was resting a lot, I didn't mind the darkness as much. It was instead a welcome friend. This past month has been another period of struggle for me. We have moved to a new home, but the change and the process have been one of the most superhero tasks I have ever done. I have moved many times in my adult life, including 3 countries in a 4-year span, but this was the most stressful move ever. That has to do with my child. Change is hard for everyone, but this was tornado level hard. So, I have tried to hunker down and weather the storm. Eventually, it will pass. Life will get easier. We will find new friends, we will find more light. We will grow more of our own food. We will sing and dance and fill the house with laughter. For all my tears and toil and perseverance, it is a blessed Christmas.

My first book order arrived in the mail yesterday, my music album is ready for sale and we finally have a house in a little swing dance town.

As I was packing and unpacking things, I found a list I made of things that were important to me to do or have in my life. I realized that three of the five became more real this year. I wrote the number one thing was to be a writer and that came more into focus this year in both music and books. I also wrote that I wanted to have income that came in, even if I was unable to work. And now I have multiple things for sale that are not dependent on me trading time for money. Another one was that I wanted to have a house where we could grow our own food and spend time in the garden. So, we haven't grown anything yet, but we have the property and the house now.

And one of the first things we unpacked was the Christmas stuff to decorate our little live Christmas tree, which I'm happy to report has more room to grow on our new porch.

So, just remember when you are in the dark, take time to rest and new things will be birthed forth. Seeds planted must begin in darkness. Keep hoping for something great to spring forth. The light will come.

May you all be blessed this Christmas.