Dear Reader:

I love when you discover the story behind the story that you are reading. This happened just recently to me.

First Frost and Garden Spells literally put me under a spell with a new author who I like a lot… named Sarah Addison Allen. Her mixture of magic and reality, fantasy and familiar, in her stories, told me that I had found another soul sister who thinks and dreams like me.

After finishing the first two books…I read another novel she had written a year or so ago called Lost Lake – the synopsis lured me back into into the world of faith and unexplained delights in life…(For me-God Winks.)

It wasn’t until I had finished reading it (which I liked very much) that I noticed another personal story within her Acknowledgements at the end of the book.

“In early 2011, I was surprised by a diagnosis of advanced-stage breast cancer. I couldn’t see it then, but that year of horrible change brought me to an amazing place in my life. But I didn’t get there alone.

She goes on to thank everyone in her life…. family, friends, editors, and publishers who walked this detour with her. Suddenly I realized why I  felt such an affinity to this author so early on. We shared another bond of sisterhood…breast cancer.

She’s right…we can’t do it alone and one t-shirt I discovered this year on-line explains just that…. I have already decided that this was and is the important lesson in battling any health issue…we can’t do it alone. (* I have my t-shirt, walking shoes, and pants already laid out…Bring it on!)

Lost Lake was Allen’s first book after her hiatus to fight breast cancer…For the past two years she has been in remission. No wonder, again, why I felt such a sense of kindred spirit.

It became obvious from the title and the story of lost “souls” coming together at Lost Lake (to re-discover themselves)  that this novel was partly autobiographic.

When we are confronted with a sudden, unexpected obstacle, along our journey, it forces us into an unplanned and unknown detour. We do feel lost, wondering if the detour is a dead-end or will it reconnect to the main highway of life farther down the road?

Through one of her main characters…Allen expresses her attitude towards this medical obstacle in her life when she says:

“She took a deep breath and stood up. When your cup is empty, you do not mourn what is gone. Because if you do, you will miss the opportunity to fill it again.”

Monday night I went to the author’s Facebook site and wrote out some of the feelings I just shared with you. I, also, shared a God Wink with her. I sent her a drawing of “Devin.”

One of the characters in the book is a little eight-year-old child named Devin…a girl who lives her life in a world of fantasy,,, always wearing fairy wings, rain boots (rain or shine) with tiaras and/or feathers (she has found along the wooded paths) in her hair.

I thought to myself…where have I seen an image… just like the description of this child recently. Bingo! Kaitlyn’s birthday card to me.

So until tomorrow…it is only when a cup is empty that new possibilities arise to re-fill it.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*It is October 1…the first day of October. I am sad to see September go…she was such a lady and a lot of fun…but I like Miss October too…I just hope she won’t fly by as fast her predecessor.

Say Rabbit and good luck will follow you all month!

*Readers…be careful…I was almost a victim of a scam last night…

I had a Facebook request from a close friend asking to be a friend again on Facebook… I thought that was strange….because she is already on my Facebook as a friend…

In the next message “she” was telling me that she had received a large sum of money from a federal agency (Dept of Health and Human Services) and saw my name on the list too…

Of course initially I got excited but then when I tried to call her no one was home.

The  Facebook “friend” gave me a name to contact about the awards and asked if I needed his information….but instead I called my friend’s home. As soon as the scammer realized I had called my real friend…I got a no acceptance message back from whoever. The name of the “Agent” who was supposed to help me was an Agent Richard Collins, Sr. Beware!

*These crooks are using Facebook friends to contact you. Thank you John for helping me through this scam. John also sent this link from a  CBS news cast on this latest scam.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/imposter-scam-cons-your-facebook-friends/