Thanks for the Ticket, Officer!

by Madelle Morgan

Last week my sister was driving along a winding two lane rural highway when she was stopped for speeding.

"I didn't see the sign, sir," she pleaded, suspicious there wasn't a visible sign for reduced speed on the approach to the tiny community - a crossroads with a district police station and a few other buildings. 

One $50 ticket later she continued on her way, only to discover that a car accident had occurred minutes earlier. If it hadn't been for the delay, she'd potentially have been involved in that very accident.

My sister is grateful for that ticket.

The RTG theme for November is gratitude. Sometimes in the heat of the moment we are certainly not grateful for what life throws at us. We bemoan our terrible luck. We can't understand why bad things happen to good people. Down the road, however, like my sister we may change our minds.

A few years ago I was feeling guilty because we moved so often that my son did not put down roots in any community long enough to consider it a hometown. A wise woman asked me, "Where's the gift in that?" After thinking long and hard, I realized that the gift was freedom. 

While others of his graduating high school class were loath to move away from home for work or education, my son attended university on the Atlantic coast and a post-grad program on the Pacific coast, having never visited those places before. Years later he lives in a different city from me, travels for work and play, and has friends throughout North America.

Now I'm grateful that emotional ties to a hometown did not clip my son's wings.

Life may not go exactly as you hope and pray for, but in retrospect occasionally you may identify a positive benefit, a gift that was life-changing. Here are some examples that may resonate with you:

"I was devastated when my boyfriend dumped me, but otherwise I'd never have met the love of my life."

"He wasn't the man I wanted, but it turned out that he was the one I needed."

"I'm a better, more compassionate person that I was before the tragedy."

"Because of my relative's illness, I went into the health care field to help others."

"Even though I was devastated when I didn't make the team, otherwise I never would've had time to develop my talent for ____"

"The hardship made me realize that I possess the inner strength to accomplish anything."

"I have a speeding ticket, but I'm alive."

In retrospect, what are you grateful for?

www.madellemorgan.com

For Your Reading Pleasure And Other Things

by Judith Ashley

November the Genre-istas share their favorite holiday-themed romance novel and our

Judith Ashley

weekends are full of Guest Contributors and Genre-istas who have holiday-themed romance novels, novellas, short stories, and anthologies coming out.

Without even going to my ‘saved on the shelves’ stash I clearly remember Jo Beverley’s Christmas Angel and Nora Robert’s The Gift and if you are looking for an historical or contemporary romance I’d recommend either. Another one of my favorites is Paty Jager’s e-book Christmas Redemption. I’m sure by the end of this month, I’ll have added a few more favorites to my list!

For much of my life Christmas was the center of our family’s winter doings. My Mom shopped all year long for that special something for the people on her list. She always was aware of their color and style preferences and took great pride in finding just the perfect ‘something’. As adults, at Thanksgiving we exchanged lists with each other and included sizes, colors, and brands if appropriate. Why? Because none of her three children had inherited her ‘gift’ of finding just the right ‘gift’ so we cheated and helped each other out after a couple of disastrous gift exchanges.

Twenty years ago this September I was invited to join a newly forming Sacred Women’s Circle and in December I celebrated my first Winter Solstice. Until my mother’s death in 2002, I balanced both Christmas with my family and Solstice with my Women’s Circle. And for a year or two after she died, I worked hard to keep the long standing family Christmas traditions alive – special ornaments nearing their 100^th year of being for the Christmas tree, being able to open one gift on Christmas Eve from someone who would not be with us Christmas Day, special breakfast Christmas morning, Christmas stockings hand knitted for each of us (when I was divorced my original stocking got lost in the process – I still tear-up when I think of the Christmas Eve my mom said I had to open this box with a box with a box and in the last box was a new Christmas stocking she’d knitted for me that year).

These days, my granddaughters spend Christmas Day with their parents and do all the tree, trimmings, turkey dinner, etc. They (or at least one of them) spend Solstice night with me. Sometimes we drive around and look at lights and ooh and aah over the sparkle and creativity of the homeowners. We always talk about what we want to manifest in the coming light of the next year. And it never fails that, at least once during the evening, I talk about the wonder and awe our ancestors experienced when they drove back the darkness and minute-by-minute the days grew longer and warmer after this darkest of nights.

We talk about this time of year - from Samhain (Halloween) to Solstice (Christmas) and maybe through New Years Day - as ‘the holiday season’. In my tradition, we celebrate the turning of the wheel of life so every six weeks or so there is another “holiday” to celebrate. My plan is to start up www.JudithAshleyRomance.blogspot.com with posts about those holidays. I hope you’ll join me.

May the light of love shine upon you whatever your traditions.

Please share your favorite holiday memory or tradition, especially one that brings a tear to your eyes.

www.FreeReadsFromTheGenre-istas.blogspot.com for my newest short short story First Love. I’ll be writing Ashley’s Story, Book Four in the Women’s Circle Series, during National Novel Writing Month which starts today.