Someone might have flipped a switch in my mind
because I’m scratching my head trying to retrace the past twelve months and
wondering where they might have gone.
Let’s see….oh yes, twelve months today, I was
standing in the big apple, New York City, still feeling pretty pleased with
myself after not falling overboard in Central Park’s lake and being weighed
down by the engagement ring burning a hole in my pocket. I don’t even what I
(spl) uttered that day when I got down on one knee in the rowboat to convince
my partner of the past decade to stick with me for a few more. I don’t think
she knows either. The Tiffany box drowned out all common sense and all she
probably heard was her mind screaming ‘Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie’.
I’m a fan of the fairy-tales and a rowboat in
central park gliding across the green lake on a clear blue sky day
certainly seemed the setting of one. I had a lot of inspiring moments on
that trip and I’m a sucker for sunrises and sunsets and to walk across Brooklyn
Bridge as the sun was setting capped off our magical day.
The ten days that followed were an emotional whirlwind,
which seemed to pick us up to raise us high and toy with us. Siobhan had just
started a new job; we were engaged; an agent let me know of The Reaper’s strong
potential but the monumental work that would have to be done to reach it; and
we learned Siobhan’s beloved father, Jimmy, had been diagnosed with terminal
cancer and only had three months left to live.
That was the deflating moment we were dropped
by the whirlwind and were brought crashing back down to the numbing ground
gasping. It was a very bleak winter with Jimmy sadly leaving us in January. He's very much missed. It
wasn’t until we went to Barcelona & Madrid for our birthdays in April did
we start to shed part of the gloom that had engulfed us. We made so many
memories that trip and I got to say goodbye to the last of my twenties on
Barcelona’s 4km long beach taking in a glorious sunrise that set fire to the
sky. I couldn’t imagine a more befitting way for me to do it. Inspired by our
trip, we returned to one of our favourite cities quickly after and spent a blurry week consuming indulgent food and fine wine in Paris.
With the rewrite of the manuscript on the verge
of completion, a chance opportunity at Dublin’s Writing Seminar led me to
getting my opening three chapters critiqued by an agent over the course of a month. She, without question,
brought me to another level of writing based on those three chapters alone and
I went about rewriting every single word of that manuscript (again) based on
what I had learned. I shut out the world, put the headphones on and Taylor Swift and Ed
Sheeran on repeat – don't judge, those inspiring stars know how to capture emotion
and dream. Oh, and I can't forget Les Brown. In those moments of doubt his wisdom is a reminder that failure and dedication are just the paving stones to success.
After spending four months constantly rewriting I emerged from my mental cave like a starving bear from hibernation to see the world afresh and now the full manuscript lies in the hands of a
few interested agents. I’ve been promised nothing, it was up to me to get the
work up to the level required, but I get to leave The Reaper
behind for a while. I’ve re-joined the land of those who actually communicate
with one another with spoken words, which typically composes of ‘blah blah,
blah, blah blah, and blah’ - sorry, I'm still working on my inner translations. I've got the glazed over face and a timely nod down but I'm retraining my muscles so I can muster up the accustomed smile expected.
Tomorrow we travel to Florence on a quest to
determine our wedding venue…or something like that. I've been given the general gist but I don’t know, I have a
habit of tuning out when such conversations arise (a practiced skill) and then
asking something irritating later like – ‘when’s the date again?’. All I know for certain is we're going to Italy......yes, Italy.
I’m hoping there to discover
some more inspiring moments.
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