Give Me a “G”
Sometimes life hits you with a curve ball.
You can react a few ways: You can ignore it and pretend it never happened, you can get angry, depleting your energy and the good things that are happening, or you can find something positive; dare I say humorous in what just happened.
I’ll give you an example. In our book, Love Meets Life, we each wrote a chapter that described where and when that happened for us. A point of view. The beautiful thing was that we all wrote something from a different point of view but all of us shared stories of love.
Our book had been proofed and was in the Advanced Copy stage and had its initial printing I was getting ready to mock up a launch photo/meme and I suddenly saw “IT”, or should I say I didn’t see “IT” Reading my name, it said PATRICIA HOLATE HANEY, not PATRICIA HOLGATE HANEY – The “g” was missing….
Now you must know the back story here. My maiden name is Holgate. When I was younger, I had always wanted to be a writer. As a young girl, I even “published” my own “books” and sold them to very kind neighbors and relatives. I wrote the books on paper by hand and then either bound them together using a hole punch and yarn or, when I had one, a stapler. I even loved essays in school. My 5-page Civil War essay turned into 30 pages. I remember handing in the bound essay to the teacher I was sure he would be amazed at my ambitious essay. It was bound together beautifully, the fabric I used to cover the cardboard and the brand -new brass colored rings I used to hold it together. His eyes widened as he took it from me and I was positive it was in amazement. In hind sight, he most likely was thinking, oh my God, I’m never going to get through these reports tonight
I remember my Dad and Mom reading everything I wrote and their encouragement. It was a great feeling.
Later, I wrote an article or story, frankly I can’t remember what, and my Mom told me I should send it to the local newspaper I addressed it to one of the columnists who I read every day. Next thing I knew, I got called to the phone and it was him, on the line, asking if I would like to come to the newspaper and talk to him about writing. Would I? Oh yeah!
My Mom drove me to the newspaper. I got a tour and then the columnist sat me down in a chair across from him. We had a great conversation about how he thought I showed talent and asked if I had plans for my future. That is all the specifics I remember. I know he had words of encouragement and told me to not give up on my dreams and if I had questions, I could write him. I floated out of there that day. I felt like I could do anything. Writing was going to be my ticket to the future.
The years in between then and now were filled with promise, hope, crushed dreams and confidence and more. I decided I was going to get my feet wet by participating in this book. I felt secure with people who I felt were like minded in lifting people up, in expressing gratitude, and showing love. I didn’t know many of them before the book, but during the writing and after publishing I have come to realize that the best thing I did was put myself out there and get involved.
But now, the “g” ….
Was I going to let it goad me into anger or sadness? Was I going to let it “get” to me? NO, I wanted to honor my parents with my maiden name because they had always wanted me to write, they wanted me to realize my dreams – no matter what they were.
My Mom had a heart that was “generous” My Dad had a “genuinely” dry sense of humor. He was quick witted, well read, and loved to laugh. I mean really laugh until tears ran down his face If you were in the company of his silent laugh, you knew you had hit “gold” standard.
The missing “g” opened a floodgate of giggles. A running stream of “g” words, grateful, it was a glorious epiphany; I was glad I took I the chance. I felt good enough.
This experience with “g”, the 7th letter of the alphabet, the letter has so many positive words associated with it. You might say I ended up running for the goal line in celebrating with giddiness.
I literally got the t – shirt!
What are your positive G words?
