3/04/2011

My New Book Is Now Available!



My new book - front and back cover.
FedEx dropped off  a cardboard box on my doorstep this week.  My heart pounded as I ripped open the box.  There smiling up at me were several copies of my newest book "FOR EVERY MOTHER . . . Celebrating All Stages and Ages of Mothering".

Seeing a book I've written for the first time is both fulfilling and frightening.  Writing is a solitary act . . . just me, my thoughts and my computer in a small home office.  Publishing, on the other hand, is so public.  It comes with the sudden pressure to actually sell copies.  It feels like sending a child out into the world.  I'm apprehensive because I don't know what kind of reception this book will receive.

Then I remember that reading is also a solitary act.  An author connects with a reader one to one.  This companionship is intimately personal.  Like a private conversation between friends, a writer and a reader come together and inspire each other.  Every time I have been tempted to give up on writing an appreciative  reader has written me a letter or e-mail and inspired me to continue.  I can only hope that this new book will find a few friends.

I wrote this book to celebrate mothering.  Whether we've been a mother for a few brief moments before the heartbreak of miscarriage or we've been blessed to physically bear children is not the determining factor in our power to mother. All women are mothers.  What matters if that we make the individual effort to inspire, encourage, uplift, teach, love and serve each other.

Mothering changes souls one at a time.  For true mother love transforms both the lover and the beloved.  The true value of a year or a life is not measured by the number of our children but by our personal capacity to love.  Each woman's contribution is meaningful; each choice to love is significant and profound.

And so today I send this book out to you . . . and to women everywhere . . .  from my heart to yours  . . . with my deepest love and appreciation for everything you do.  To all women everywhere I say . . . thank you.