Showing posts with label Forgiveness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forgiveness. Show all posts

Saturday, February 4, 2023

Relationships a Hard Road to Travel

by Diana McCollum

February is the month for celebrating or honoring those in our lives that we love. #Relationships can be a tricky road to travel. Here are some quotes on love, caring, and relationships. Enjoy!




“When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable.” 
― 
Jess C. Scott, The Intern






"A relationship is like a car, when you have a flat tyre, you don’t just leave the car to get a new one, but you try to replace and change the bad tyre to keep it moving."=unknown









Hope you've enjoyed these quotes and they've given you something to think about!

Have a great weekend!!!

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Redefining Strong Women

By Robin Weaver

My crocodile brain had an issue with this month’s theme—strong women.  In an unbiased, diversity-accepting world, wouldn’t the theme be “Strong People?” Since we don’t inhabit that unbiased, diversity-accepting world, we unfortunately must promote the idea that women are strong.

The dictionary defines strong first as physical strength, but the second definition is: the capacity of an object to withstand great force or pressure. By that definition, women are the strongest creatures in the universe. I mean we have babies, for Goddess's sake. Even the most fit he-man would crack with the first contraction. This isn’t my opinion, it’s fact. How do I know? Because I cracked with the first contraction.

“Give me something for this pain!” I screamed.

In that moment, I grew even stronger because had I not been restrained (to be fair, I was only restrained by my inability to get out of the fetal position), I would have crushed the windpipe of the man responsible for creating the black hole currently tearing my pelvis apart.

My point is, I was strong, not because I’m a woman, but because I had to be. That doesn’t give me a warm-fuzzy. But neither does it mean I’m not strong. IMO, it means we need to re-define the definition of strong.

Instead of withstanding that great force, we need to become the force. Become a force for acceptance. Become a force that is intolerant only of bad behavior.

We celebrate Maggie Thatcher, Rosa Parks, and Jessie Diggins. (Note: for those of you without internet or who had no interest in the recent Olympics, Jessie Diggins and her teammate won the first ever U.S. gold medal in cross-country skiing. If you’ve tried cross-country skiing, you know it ranks only a few places behind childbirth in physical torture.) It’s easy to celebrate the Maggies and the Rosas, i.e. women with newsworthy accomplishments, but perhaps it’s time we gave a shout-out to women, uh...I mean people with less glamorous strength. The hospice volunteers; the working mom who stays up late to bake cookies even though she has an important meeting the next morning; the woman who buys new shoes to help stimulate the economy (okay, maybe we’ll scratch this one); and, the friend who patiently listens to you complain, without judgment, even when you’re full of caca.

Perhaps the greatest definition of strength is being able to say, “Hey, I’m wrong.” Not only say it, but fix the wrong.

But, hey. I could be wrong about that.

May the force be with you.

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Cherishing Relationships

 



There is nothing like a pandemic to teach us the importance of human connection. All of a sudden we were restricted from gathering, let alone touching, other humans outside of our immediate household. In some areas, they were called Pods. That term reminded me of a sci-fi movie. Which is what the entire past year and half has felt like.

While we had to maintain distance from friends and family, lots of us went online and forged new online friendships and relationships. I did a lot of that as a new author, and formed online relationships with people that morphed into chats, online Messenger calls on Facebook, or even Zoom, which became a meeting staple this past year.

But my heart went out to the younger folks and to those who had to figure out ways to meet and date people during a pandemic. My daughter got caught up in it, and she made friends online or met new ones through her video gaming programs. While this was good to stay connected to other humans, nothing takes the place of face-to-face contact.

Some relationships that were strained before covid fell apart as a result of forced proximity. Others became closer to their partner or spouse. I was fortunate to experience the latter, though it took some work. The cool thing was, I learned about myself in the process. If an argument popped up I had to decide: Is it worth arguing about? Who cares if I forgot to buy coffee creamer or whose turn it was to pick up doggie doodoo? 


As a romance writer, one of the tropes we write about is forced proximity, where people are in situations where they're forced to stay together for a while. A common one in romance, for example, is a blizzard or snowstorm, which I see a lot in northern latitude stories.

I learned even more about my spouse, despite being together for decades. I got to know him as a changed, older person. In my second novel I wrote about self forgiveness, forgiving others, and redemption after screw-ups...so I paid closer attention to the interactions I had with my spouse. How often was I willing to forgive him when things went south? Or forgive myself for saying or doing something stupid?

If there's anything this past year and a half has taught me, it's patience and flexibility, where family and spouse relationships are concerned. I'm a better listener now. I'm more patient with long explanations. When I ask my spouse what time it is and he tells me how the watch was made, I don't come unglued anymore. Instead I listen, fully aware that he has no one else to use as a sounding board when he tries to figure out the wiring harness for our car and boat trailer. He processes out loud and I've learned to ask questions to help him. I never did this before, I was too impatient.

Now? I make a habit of saying I'm grateful for something each day when I wake up. At this point in life I'm just grateful I'm waking up! I value my friends and family more now than ever before. But the biggest thing I've learned from all this: Never again will I take anyone or anything for granted. Especially toilet paper LOL.

Mostly, I'm grateful for the person I chose to share my life with, lo those many years ago. We have a long shared history. 

And that is priceless.


I'm thrilled to announce my second novel, Alaska Inferno is now on Amazon. It released May 31st and so far I'm thrilled to say the reviews are wonderful.

 GET INFERNO HERE!

Watch the book trailer for ALASKA INFERNO!

LoLo Paige was a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service. She's an award-winning author of two novels in the Blazing Hearts Wildfire Series, Alaska Spark and soon to be released Alaska Inferno. Her stories contain edge-of-the-seat, invigorating action, strong-willed female firefighters and romantic suspense. LoLo and her husband divide their time between their oceanside beach house in Kachemak Bay, Alaska and sunny Arizona. 

What readers have said about LoLo's books... 

"I could almost feel the heat of the wildfires that surrounded the crews as they staved off threats..."

"The men are wild and yummy and the women are strong and lovingly feisty. The plot moves along at a fast pace..."

Website Bookbub Goodreads Facebook Instagram Twitter Pinterest

 

Saturday, November 21, 2020

A Holiday Rom Com about family, food, and finding a dead body in the freezer

 I know...not the way you were expecting that title to go, right? Hee Hee

I love a good Holiday romance book. I'd much rather read than watch the never ending holiday movies on Hallmark, and now Lifetime and Netflix. Those are all pretty generic and look and sound the same to me. I much prefer losing myself in a good holiday romcom or a women's fiction story about the holidays and family.

So, because I love to read Holiday RomComs so much, I tend to pen a new one every year or so. Scheduling and contracts prevent me from doing one a year - which is what I'd love to do. This year's entry, MISTLETOE, MOBSTERS, & MOZZARELLA,  is another San Valentino family Christmas story concerning the Gracie and Louie branch of the family tree. These two lovebirds have been together over 40 years, have weathered medical and financial crises together and still look at one another as if the other hung the moon.

Don't you just love that?? I know I do.



They have 6 kids - 5 obnoxious boys and 1 daughter, the eldest child, Madonna. Donna, as everyone calls her, is her father's rock in so many ways. She manages the deli he owns, she's a calming influence for her mother's sometimes crazy behavior, and she practically raised all her younger brothers.

Donna has dreams and aspirations that, unfortunately, don't fit into her family's needs or desires. But a girl can dream...and dream Donna does.

One morning a few weeks before Christmas, she opens the store for the day and finds the dead body of one the employees stored in the freezer. This starts a string of events, not the least of which is the arrival on the scene of the one guy Donna has never been able to get out of her mind. Tony Roma is the investigating detective in the murder case and the moment she sees him she's transported back to the time they were teenagers.

Tony is assigned to work undercover in the deli to ferret out the killer and Madonna is quickly losing her mind - and heart. The story evolves into a tale about forgiveness, moving forward, and clinging to family when you need them the most, but breaking free to be your own person.



Now, some of that may sound like a heavy read, but believe me - MISTLETOE, MOBSTERS, & MOZZARELLA is anything but heavy!!! 

I released the book in October because I wanted to get a jump on holiday sales - and reading. There's nothing better than opening your ereader after a day of working or frantic holiday shopping, making a cup of tea, and taking a break for an hour to lose yourself in a witty, charming and satisfying book.

I've got another post on 11/27 about Holiday romance books I like to recommend ( not, necessarily my own, Heehee) so check back then and see what I'm reading this year.

Toodles for now and happy reading - Holiday and otherwise.



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