I recently received my copy of Red Envelope’s  A Story of a Lifetime.  This book is a hard bound leather and came with my name engraved on the front of it.  More importantly, it contains about 500 questions that cover everything from my childhood to philosophy.  It records my life.  Until I was about twenty nine or thirty years old, I had this terrible, terrible fear that I was going to die a premature death.  I did not know how I was going to die but I did not believe I would make it until my daughters were old enough to remember me.  Only when both my daughters passed the age of five did I start to relax because some of us can remember events or people from when we were five.   I was awfully afraid that I would die and my daughters would not know that their mother had adored them.  I was afraid of being forgotten not because I am so special but because I know what it is like to have a void in your heart that only the love of a good parent can fill.  I know what it is like to feel unconditionally loved by a mother — but I do not know what it is like to feel loved by a father.  And I did not want my daughters to experience that kind of void.  So, from the time they were born, I have written regular letters to them.  And I believe in documenting everything so that, one day, they can read and know more about who their mother was and why she was the woman she became.  And my future grandchildren and great-grandchildren—-I want them to know I thought of them long before they were ever born, and loved them.  

I am writing in the book.  I am handwriting my responses. Unfortunately, however,  the book only gives you so many lines per question.  And sometimes I have found that I need more space to adequately answer the question.  So that’s what this is.   On this page, you will be able to find blog posts dedicated to answering the questions of this book.  Our lives are indeed a long story.   We can tell beautiful ones, or we can tell tragic ones.  The people we love are supporting characters,  souls that influence and mold our confidence.  Those who break our hearts are our story’s antagonists and yet they are the ladders by which we grow and mature.    My story is extremely personal.  Some of the questions are easy and some make me uncomfortable.   But sharing my story is important, for a variety of reasons.  One, it is a mechanism of healing for me.  Two, it preserves history for my daughters.  Three,  sharing forces me to acknowledge both the parts of my past for which I am grateful and those parts that are more difficult.

If you would like to purchase your own copy of this magnificent book, you can do so at Red Envelope.