. . . but I stopped blogging for a little while.  Nothing’s wrong per se. . . I just needed time to continue grieving to myself while I was completing “final” tributes to mom.

As a matter of fact, my last entry was on Mother’s Day, yet a lot has happened since that time.

• I wrote mom’s official obituary for the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church publication.  The “Celebration of Life” service they had for the deceased clergy on June 18th was simply beautiful.
• I dedicated a chapter to mom entitled “Adjusting to Major Shifts in Life” in an anthology that was published and released during my birthday weekend through Professional Woman Publishing.  The title of the book is My Personal GPS:  Navigating Your Way Through Life’s Challenges.  Let me know if you’d like a copy of the book!
• I completed the final edit, printed and published my first author, Jeffrey L. Wall, under my new company – The Write Source Publishing – and released 6 Weeks or Less:  A Portrait of Faith on July 9, 2016.  We livestreamed the Book Dedication service, and it was wonderful to see a two-year project come to an end, but since then, as his publicist, booking agent and manager, the project has taken on a new life because of people’s lives that have been changed by reading the book.  It has been a blessing to witness this process, and it’s also opening the door for new writing and publishing opportunities for me.  God is amazing!
• I’ve partnered with the Christian Education department at my church to produce another blog as the church embarked upon a 21-day Daniel Fast.  Communing with the Lord through that experience was transformative and something I/we needed to push through some strongholds.

And now, at present, I’m working to posthumously complete mom’s autobiography that she started working on at the beginning of 2015 entitled How I Got Over.  Reading through the first two chapters this past weekend reminded me of why and how much I have missed blogging on BloomingLillies.

Being driven to “close the books” on all of the aforementioned projects, I lost sight of – and began to sorely miss – the “me” time I was having with mom each week.

Again, as I was reading over, editing and making notes about what types of information I’ll need to fill in the gaps that mom left wide open, she brought to my remembrance a conversation we had back in August 2015 when she was preparing for her second surgery.  Linda Eastman, the lovely CEO of Professional Woman Publishing, knew about mom’s failing health and wanted to hasten the process of publishing mom’s autobiography so that we could have a book signing and celebrate this accomplishment.  Linda sent me the galley proof and asked that I try to keep mom on schedule so that we could move forward with our plans.

As I mentioned this to mom, she said to me in her matter-of-fact assuredness:  “I’m not worried about that, daughter.  You’re supposed to finish it anyway.”

My initial thought was, of course, sure mom.  However she presented her work to me, even if her words were written out on her infamous yellow legal pads, I would transcribe her chapters, revise, edit, and do whatever I needed to do to help make this happen.  But she knew what she meant.

Anyway, I’m in the midst of her world again now, recounting her years in Brevard as a child and following her footsteps as she left there to be a billowing, beacon of light for the world.  I can’t begin to tell you the tremendous honor I feel now for the opportunity to tell this woman’s story . . . my mother, The Reverend Dr. Lillie Madison Jones.  Wow.

Working with Linda, we’ll have an announcement coming out soon as to when you should expect it to hit the shelves.

In the meantime also, I’m doing an edit of my father’s book about mom entitled Driving Miss Lillie, and he’s going to allow my company, The Write Source Publishing, to represent and publish him.  Again, wow.

With the hit song by the Shirelles playing softly in my head now, I’m at the place now where – “Mamma said there’ll be days like this, there’ll be days like this, Mamma said.”

For sure, momma said.

I’m still listening, and BloomingLillies is back.

 

In love and charity,

Giselle