So last Friday night I was hoping for some sleep onboard the red-eye to Chicago which did not happen. Stopped at Starbucks to sit down and collect me with a cup of tea and egg, went to the restroom to wash my face and brush my teeth, rented my car and drove to my Aunt Mary Jane and Uncle Bob’s house where I could relax because this was my destination. It was going to be a full day today and tomorrow in seeing my brother and his family because they were going to Michigan for his daughter’s orientation to college, Lia’s daughter’s baby shower, and my cousin’s wife’s memorial.

You know how it is when you see family relatives. It’s just nice to be in the presence of people you haven’t seen for four to six months especially when we’re getting older, and we don’t know whose funeral might be next.

And then my brother Paul came in from Dallas, and he hung out with us for a while until he went on to see my brother Curt and Helen and their kids.

Aunt Mary Jane and Uncle Bob went out to eat lunch with me. Afterward, I laid down on their Davenport and slept. I wrote bills and put it in the mailbox before their postman came. I talked with them until mid-afternoon and drove thirty miles to see Curt and Helen and their kids and talk some more over dinner.

I then went to Tami and Jim’s home (longtime friends) where I would park myself till Monday night. Stayed up till midnight talking to Tami. Woke up early so I could visit with them and get myself down to Lincoln Park where the baby shower is. And then avoid traffic driving back to Palos Heights on the south side so I could spend the rest of the afternoon at my cousin’s wife’s Memorial.

I went back to Aunt Mary Jane and Uncle Bob’s and then drove back to Hinsdale. Tami and Jim were sitting out front of their house having ice tea. I joined them and then we had a lovely grilled Turkey breast dinner and talked the night away.

Early Monday morning, way behind on my content to give to my website designer I sent him an email. His response was that he doesn’t see how I can do what I do traveling the way I do. He said it requires willpower and discipline. When I responded back to him, he thought my response should be a blog and so here it is:

“I’ll get blogs to you sometime this week and the other items but I’m rebuilding my infrastructure of the organization of transcribing, editing and formatting stories people give me, and that feels great. This structure I’m creating keeps me flexible and on track. I know July is going to be a good month. As a woman, as a female business owner believing in connection personally and professionally I have to be lean and streamlined so I can travel to support my husband who is on his farm in Oklahoma. I go to Chicago to support my family there. I go the Camino de Santiago because that keeps me honest and truthful. I travel when people want me to record at an event they’re having so I must be flexible and understand what I have to do to get a great story from people and put it in a book form for them in one to three months.

I do what I do because of connection, facing my fears and learning. The last time I stayed in Chicago with Tami was last fall. I see, feel and know how much I’ve grown and changed. How much the company is growing and changing. Long

talks with Tami, seeing my older relatives that may not be here further down the road and connecting to my hometown where I grew up makes travel worthwhile. Yesterday, Tami and I went out for lunch. We had many great talks, and she’s spreading the word about my company because she loves my concept. What she loves about it is that you can stick the book in a suitcase and bring it somewhere to show someone. You can’t do that with a scrapbook. She emphasizes that I need to stress that people simply talk to me or record their stories and I do the rest. And the rest of the story takes a long time to do whether it is a thin book or not. And it’s nice knowing that reordering is always available. Tami says she would never have had this kind of courage to see this company to a robust and healthy beginning as I have done. Does it get any better than that? Your best friend, a financial whiz in banking, whom you’ve known since you were four, loving and supporting what you’re doing.

I called Stephany’s Mom for a further recording time, and that will be next week when Stephany is with her. But, I managed to tape the conversation ten minutes into it and got some great stories. Imagine, if you will, their family took Canoe trips down The Current River in Missouri and brought their priest along with them so he could say Mass, and they didn’t have to stop the boats. Isn’t that wild?

And by the way, privacy is also protected and respected so that the person does know they are being recorded.

What a great image to share with people. I’ve never met this woman, but we have become friends. She’s foggy from chemo and radiation and gets frustrated with her memories. She thought the process of memories and writing should be painful and take a long time. Au Contraire, I say, it should be fun and free. You talk, and I do the rest.

And I close my email to Najee by saying, ‘Do you remember how I was when you first met me almost two years ago? I guess it’s true; storytelling provides growth and healing because I continue to experience this within myself. ‘ ”

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