Book and I are getting ready to travel

Hello lovelies, yes, I am slowly working my way back and I have someone I'd like you to meet.

It’s been a while since I wrote something new. Sorry for going AWOL a while. I missed you all that’s for sure. I usually have a few pieces on the go at once but things at home ratchetted up in December and left me without words, our youngsters and their woes overtaking mine. Guests and cooking, swathes of bed linen, girlfriend troubles, a tummy bug that stormed through the house. I had managed to avoid the shards-in-the-throat cold before New Year and the stomach wrenching flu. Delighted the ‘kids’ start to adapt to their new challenges and show smiles that say in a nutshell that they are getting back on their feet, again, I got the breather I needed and then, yup, I come down with something. Why do we fall when we’re just on the up?!

So finally I’m in my office in the basement and I have a quiet hour to think. My fingers hover above the keys and I wait with a book in boxes by my desk. It arrived on 10^th January, long past all the festivities and the gifting. It’s a book about calm that arrived amid calm, true to its name.

I realise, rather slowly that I have made a thing. An object. It’s a something that has a life, all be it, made of paper. It has a start date and colour and a voice of its own. Without speaking, it tells a story parallel to mine and I can’t help but wonder what the relationship will be, between book and I. You look good. Better than I imagined. It seems all the work fell into place after all. A book of pictures full of the sparkle of dawn. I’ve gifted you a few times in the past two weeks and faced the doubts of, how do you and where on earth, and what, do you write when you sign a book? Book firsts for me.

Will it be fun to take you to friends? To show you at dinners? Or will I tremble with fear? Do I gift you when I arrive or as I leave and walk out the door, avoiding watching their reaction as they turn the pages? How will it feel to walk you to books shops and gift shops and see if somebody somewhere will like you enough to give you a temporary home on their shelves? I wonder. My heart is full of wonder. I now have a few of you in my suitcase, carefully bound hoping not to hit the corners or fold the front while we travel, trip postponed some days while I recover from ‘that bug’.

But weirdly I must admit the bug has done me some good. It slowed me right down. Forced me to have to stay in bed. The warmth of bed and the simple comforts of home. Cuddles have replaced chores, cleaning and washing and work. The cocoon of home with its cosy, soft edges. Fluffy socks, baggy jumpers, honey on toast. It’s a world I needed to appreciate more if I am perfectly honest. If one can ever be, ‘perfectly honest’. One can endeavour to get closer at least.  

So I will not feel a little panicked that I have not given you an official birth date, that I have material for a video but have yet to edit. I shall look forward to presenting you with a bit of sparkle and true to your name, I shall take my time with a step by step gentle approach. Even if the ISBN code stuff is doing my head in, I shall get a grip with it because otherwise you come up as nothing, just a number. Yes, you, my story, my picture story, you deserve more than just a few digits to your name. Here, at least are a couple of photos of my new baby…I shall introduce you better soon.