Hi everyone,
I want to start off by wishing all of you a very happy new year! 2012 is looking to be a fantastic year to buy books (three I can think off of the top of my head).
I just finished my latest manuscript which was delivered to my agent on New Year’s Eve. (Yes, that is what I do on New Year’s Eve – I don’t party like a rock star – I am sitting at home quietly, drinking my Diet Coke, and editing my latest manuscript)
The ending of my novel, got me to thinking about happy endings. I used to believe that if an episode in my real life didn’t have a happy ending, then it wasn’t worth it. For example, because a relationship that I tried so hard to hang on to didn’t work out and didn’t have a happy ending, it meant that the relationship and my time were wasted. Or if I never meet the son I placed for adoption and find happiness there, I experienced all of that pain and heartache for nothing.
But after writing my most recent book, the character Adrianna, taught me that life isn’t always about getting the happy ending you want or expect to have. Life gives you what you need–sometimes it’s happiness and sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes you need hardship in order to learn and grow. Sometimes you need to experience loss in order to learn a lesson. And sometimes you are privileged enough to experience happiness.
The key to the phrase “happy ending” is the word “ending.” Do I really want to reach the end? Remember that feeling you get on Christmas morning when you look around the tree and see the mounds of wrapping paper and discarded boxes and realize that every present is opened? Your heart drops just a bit when you realize that it’s all over? That’s what an ending feels like.
Happiness isn’t an ending. It’s an emotion we feel on the journey of life….it isn’t the destination or ending of a story. So while I may never meet my son, I have six wonderful children in my life who bring me exhilarating exasperation (aka happiness…I think). And while I didn’t wind up in the arms of the boy I loved at sixteen…I am happily and deeply in love with the man life always knew I was meant to be with.
So, my lesson learned this holiday season, life isn’t always about the happy ending, it’s about the journey and the things that bring us happiness along the way.
Here is to a wonderful 2012.
Much love to all.

