Life is Beautiful

I'm blessed to know an extraordinary woman who believes "life is beautiful" with all her heart.  She posts it as a tag on all her correspondence and has posted banners with this phrase every where she has been.
Even now, as she struggles with unemployment and an injury, she still firmly believes this.

As I labor to ensure that my novel is ready to be submitted I have stated that my antagonist is life.  The villain I needed was not a person but the unfortunate events that happen everyday in life to everyone, even to my firecracker of a friend.  My heroine has to rise above the tumultuous waves life is throwing at her family.  Finding a way to still see life as beautiful while you are still queasy from the buffeting life is giving you is a gift my friend has that I have taken inspiration from.

I have been through a lot that I merely survived.  It is a gift to be able to rise above and thrive.  It is a gift I am giving myself and hoping to impart to others through my novel I am writing.

Unwashed Grape

There is a line in "A Streetcar Named Desire" spoken by Blanche where she states a fear of dying from eating an unwashed grape.  This is by no means one of the most famous lines of the book yet I think of it every time I wash a bunch of grapes.

I remember this line because it is something that happens in everyday life.  More specifically it is something that happened in my everyday life.  My mother would never allow us to eat a piece of fruit that was not washed.  I had a connection with this line and it has stayed with me for all these years.

The fact that a single line from a book I read over 25 years ago has stayed with me for all these years attests to the power of writing.