Ten Years in the Making

It seems hard to believe it was almost 10 years ago that I started Friends.....Lessons of Life.  Never in a million years did I ever think that would be possible.  From about 1996 on, I began to see small changes in my life.  More and more as people learned bits and parts of my story, they encouraged me to share it.  I never thought I could.  In 2002, the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games had just wound up and I went back to the reality of the workplace.  When I learned my office would be shutting down, I went looking for another job.  I have never found one that replaced the pay or love I had for that job.


In April of 2002, I was watching the TV show Friends, when the title came to me.  It was almost if I could see exactly how the book was to be written.  I had tried once before to put my thoughts down on paper, but it didn't seem right.  That night watching Friends, I took out a piece of paper and began to write down people who came to mind and the lessons they had taught me.  When it was all over, I had 25 names with lessons.

I had been praying to find a job, but the book weighed heavily on my mind.  Seeing how the book was to be written, I remember praying again for a job.  But the answer was loud and clear, finish the book and you will find a job.  For two weeks I wrote the basis of the book.  Writing down thoughts and remembering things that happened.  Triggers went off in me that took me back to the pain I had suffered through many episodes.  It would be nothing to the pain I would truly need to go through in order to heel from my life. After those two weeks and writing the last chapter of the book, I got a call for a job. 
Not a great job, but a job.

This journey has not been easy.  There have been times I have had to put the book away and not think about it.  Still today as I go through and do a final edit one last time, there are places that are still hard for me to. Like with my cousin and learning about my Dad, leaving home at 18 on a Greyhound bus for Salt Lake City with only $200.   I find I am opening myself up in ways I never thought about.  I could finish this book and then decide not to publish it.  I don't think that will happen.  Many who have read a chapter have told me, "You need to share your story!!  You can help so many others."

That is my goal; to help others.  I know we all deal with life differently.  Sometimes we think we are the only ones going through that particular trial. We look at our friends who seem so happy and not a care in the world.  How do they do it when I seem to have the world on my shoulders?  I hope this book will help you learn how to do just that. Others think you do not have a care in the world.  It doesn't mean you won't, but it means you are learning to deal with trials and challenges.  When you learn to deal them, life is a whole other ballgame.