--EVEN GRIEF PROVIDES A LIVING REMEDY

 …I finished my novel last week.  Just the first draft, but it’s done.  85,000 words.  I like it.  I’m going to take this week off and then on Monday I’ll start editing and hopefully by the end of July or mid-August I’ll have it all polished up.

Instead of feeling elated about having it done, I’ve actually been a little blue.  I guess it’s spending so much time with the characters, and getting to know them, and then saying good-bye that’s made me this way.

Anyway, I’m playing shuffleboard this afternoon with a friend, so that should help get me out of my funk.

…Maybe I should stop reading and watching the news.  I read yesterday where they’re having so many beheadings in Saudi Arabia this year that there’s a shortage of executioners. 

Really. 

They’ve been offering signing bonuses and running ads says no experience necessary.

That’s a little hard to believe, yet it’s true.

…So let’s forget about the rest of the world for a few minutes and ponder these bits of wisdom:

-“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” Lao Tzu

-“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone.  I am the best person I know.” Frida Kahlo

-“I hate the word homophobia.  It’s not a phobia, you’re not scared.  You’re an asshole.” Morgan Freeman

-“The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.”  Duguet

-“And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” The Great Gatsby

-“I’ve had some highs, man, and I’ve had some things that gloriously didn’t work out.  The kind of failures you should be proud of.” Colin Farrel

-"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'Always do what you are afraid to do.'" Ralph Waldo Emerson

-“There is only one real failure in life that is possible, and that is, not to be true to the best one knows.” John Farrar

-“The problem with quotes on the internet is you can never know if they’re genuine.” Abraham Lincoln