Notable Dates
Jan 31, 2021
Land of Dreams Announcement
Land of Dreams sneak peek.
Gentle Reminder
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LETTERS FROM THE QUEEN
Mars D. Gill News
The magic of a New Year comes with a promise to start a new journey, write a different story, and change our trajectories. It’s a reset to bad habits.
I find myself pondering the secrets of life and reflecting on 2020–when our lives screeched to a halt, when we disagreed loudly and passionately.
And how did it all begin?
We spent New Years’ in Cancun with my sister’s family. I learned in 2020 that I had aged. The realization wasn’t gradual: it was abrupt. That leads me to my lesson number one.
1. Health is Wealth
I fell sick in Cancun. Again, when we traveled to Montana. Then, when we visited Pennsylvania—the typical viral infections. The awareness that I hadn’t taken one vacation where I hadn’t fallen sick perturbed me. Working from home further exacerbated my neck. So I’m popping vitamins to increase immunity. By the year-end, my local gym had adapted to COVID-19 and posted exercise videos online. We are hitting the living room floor now.
2021 resolution #1: Next vacation, I will avoid even a runny nose.
After we returned from Cancun, two birthday parties took the reins of my life: for my littlest and my oldest, who was plunging into double digits in March with an overly-planned Harry-Potter-themed family affair.
On February 29, 2020, I didn’t realize I had hosted the year’s last birthday party at my home over home-cooked food and the movie Frozen 2. It’s a fond memory in hindsight.
By March, the stores ran out of toilet papers. I called the BIG March party invitees, assuring them hand sanitizers would be abundant, etc. A few days later, I canceled the party as schools shut down, too. Mischief managed. Reality started to sink in that the pandemic was real. Our lives were to be changed by an invisible, barely alive virus. Lesson number two:
2. The Most Important Human Need is Love
A state of perpetual search gripped me two months into the lockdown, as though something critical went missing from my life, not present at home. I had to venture out for it. Same time, something else was transpiring.
We played Hangman, Pictionary and board games to kill time. For the canceled party, we put the banquet hall decorations inside our home. My son video called with classmates, friends, and family—doing everything one did when they were happy and celebrating. It’s impossible to halt life.
The first warm May weekend, we drove to the Mississippi River. We were together with those we loved the most. Nothing else mattered in life. COVID-19 was a skilled master. It revealed who we loved, who loved us, and who didn’t. Lucky were we to be together in love—the most fundamental of all human needs.
2021 resolution #2: Never take people who love me for granted. Not for one second.
Lesson Number three:
3. Life Doesn’t Stop
My heart aches for those who lost loved ones this year. Because the material items like restaurants, stores are recoverable. But life itself isn’t.
Our lives modified. Gigantic cross-country road trip became a single-destination quarantine in a rental. We carried out food.
Memories kept forming. Goals kept beaconing. And then . . .
I self-published my debut novel in May, a milestone in the life of a novice. The lockdown enabled me, not hindered.
My least favorite part of 2021 wasn’t COVID-19.
It was the vitriol, the lies, the deceit, the bullying by the most powerful “men” in America. The election is over, but not the platforms that spread conspiracies including those around the pandemic being a hoax.
How do I maintain my sanity? I focus on my favorite things: my children, ice cream, books, writing, knitting, a feel-good movie, traveling (now modified but not eliminated), a hearty conversation with my best friend, nature, sunsets. The list goes on. This attitude is grounded by the next lesson:
3. Life is Temporary
We forget we live on Earth for a limited time. Everything we accumulate—relationships, parents, children, money, homes, vehicles, knickknacks, memories (why memories, why, God??)—get washed clean. We don’t have an iota about what lies ahead, what exists outside of this dark universe, what shape God has. We know nothing. Yet, instead of humility, we display hubris.
2021 resolution #3: Never forget how temporary I am. Be humble.
I turned forty in 2020. Via virtual technology, my husband surprised me with messages from across the globe. I found myself satisfied at forty. Despite everything.
Months later, my husband attended a Zoom call with his family and school friends scattered across the globe on his birthday. Humans adapt. Adapting is the key to our survival. Without this hardship, we would have been further apart. In disguise, COVID-19 brought us closer.
Looking forward, traditional or self, my second book, Land of Dreams, is coming out. I believe in this story so much, and it’s my conviction you will love it, too. People say never compare your children. They are unique. But this book is so close to the heart to be not a favorite.
Please stay tuned here for its key dates: Book cover details, the articles, the sneak peeks, and the LAUNCH.
For 2021, I’ll wish for you what I wish for me—a healthy perspective that allows you to live your life to the maximum. Here’s to 2021 . . . to the hope of a better everything.
Today’s Words
“No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.”– Budha
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Latest Travel Blog – Pennsylvania
Like cotton candy, the trees had ballooned in rainbow colors, blanketing the mountains and the valleys. I and my family were traversing the COVID-19 year, where our travel and social life had catapulted into an unrecognizable, indefinite end. And our blessings, being the five of us together, propelled us on the road. Our destination was a rural town named Somerset, Pennsylvania. Besides the Fall colors, jutted from the street sides and homes signs of political affiliations—Read More
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