A Request

Hello, dear readers!

I am coming to you live from St. Helena, California today. My superhero of a husband told me to go have a weekend to myself to recharge, and who am I to refuse such an offer?

So here I am, sitting in the window of a little cafe, watching the rain on the cobbled sidewalk outside. They say we'll have thunderstorms tonight, although I haven't heard anything yet. Two nights of uninterrupted sleep, a weekend of writing, good food, movie-watching, shoe-shopping... and now, thunderstorms?! 

I ask you: could this BE anymore perfect?!

Anyway. The next few posts are going to trigger me quite a bit, I suspect, so I'm going to hold off and start them next week. 

This week, I have a request for you:

If you are reading this blog, could you do me an enormous favor and sign up as a follower by clicking the "Join This Site" button in the right sidebar?

It doesn't do much, I admit. It puts my blog and any other Blogger blogs you follow on a dashboard for you so you can see at a glance who has updated. But as far as I can tell, that's it. No notifications for you about updates or comments or anything (for better or for worse. I would appreciate that, personally. Some people hate notifications. Here, we default to your preferences, haters. You win! Happy now?!).

HOWEVER: I do have ideas about turning this story into a book some day, and the more followers I have, the more additional ones I will draw, according to Those Who Know Such Things, and look at introverted little me, trying to draw followers!

So will you? Sign up? You won't get spammed or shamed or anything. You'll just have the warm, fuzzy satisfaction of knowing you've done someone a favor... and maybe, just maybe, one day you'll be able to say you knew me when, and you were following me before I sold out.

Thank you to all of you who read here. There are a lot of you! And thank you to all of you who comment, either here or on Facebook or in the private emails you have been sending me. 

You tell me my story is teaching you things about your own. Well, your words of sympathy, empathy, and support are teaching me, too.

We are not so different, you and I. The more I write, the more you write, the more I realize how connected we are, how no one's journey is only their own, how much it matters to meet others along the path, to nod or high-five in passing or to join arms and haul each other up a particularly steep and slippery hill. 

Coming or going, ahead or behind, armor-clad or barefoot and naked as the day we were born, we are all on the path together. 

I forget sometimes. You remind me. I'll try to keep returning the favor.

Sign up and follow. 

Thank you.