Never before have the insights I share with authors been as “up front and center” as they are right now. Since late December, I’ve heard these words play over and over in my mind, and in the last two weeks, they’ve become even more insistent:

“A book takes on a life of its own. It will let you know when it is done and when it is ready to be published.”

I say these words to authors when they tell me they intend to publish their book on a specific date. It is usually connected to a birthday or a birth year or some significant date connected with their life, often a key element in their story. That date, though, frequently involves trying to rush the process in some way—sometimes even at the very beginning of the writing process.

During the last two months, getting closer to the time to publish my story, I’ve found myself being one of those authors. I became so attached to “my date” that when events began to hint at the improbability of meeting that deadline, I continued to push and prod in an attempt to make it happen.

How did I get there? Well, Valentine’s Day is a significant date in my story. It comes up in two key, life-changing events. I’d been writing Mosaic Heart for over a decade, and every time another year went by and I realized I wouldn’t get my book birthed into the world at a specific birthday year, anniversary, or most especially Valentine’s Day, I was able to let it go. But in 2021, I saw that I would not only finish writing, we would complete the editing and design processes and Mosaic Heart would be ready for production. That’s when I realized I actually could publish on the very first date I’d ever considered: Valentine’s Day!

All was going well until December 2021/January 2022, when it seemed that obstacles like COVID and delays, including paper supply issues, turned my vision into a nightmare. No matter how hard I tried to push the next boulder up the mountain, I couldn’t seem to reach the top.

In my story, I write about ease and grace and gratitude, yet most recently they were missing from my thoughts and behavior. Rather than an attitude of acceptance and a commitment to honor the life of Mosaic Heart, including when it will be birthed, I couldn’t stop trying to control what did and didn’t happen.

Fortunately for Mosaic Heart, and for me, I finally heard her loud and clear:

“Let me come into the world when I’m ready … when it’s my time to be born.
Please watch and listen because I’m not doing this without you.
But since this is the start of my life, I’m leading the way.
I’ve got this. Please trust me. And remember: Ease, grace, and gratitude!”

 She is teaching me that not only does a book take on a life of its own with regard to when it is birthed, but it also allows the messages contained in its pages to go to work in the world even when it is not being read.

What a privilege and an honor it is to become a student once more and to allow her, my beautiful Mosaic Heart, to show me the way.

 

[The Mosaic Heart book release parties—in person and online—will take place in March. Dates to be announced soon.]