My book is finished!

Imagine that you are a senior in college, graduating in an off semester. You finish your exams, mail in some term papers, and wait. You aren't sure if your professors have finished grading your work, or might ask for a rewrite. There's no graduation ceremony, but one day you ask the registrar the status of your degree and she says you've graduated.

That's sort of what it has been like to finish the new (forthcoming) Mojo Mom. We went through so many rounds of revisions and proofreading that the words eventually swam before my eyes. I thought there might be one more round of proofs, but I just found out that I am done!

So, there's no pomp and circumstance yet--we'll save that for the April 7 pub date. Today it's just me doing a happy dance, and going back to look at the rest of my life, which has been more than a little bit neglected as I raced toward my manuscript deadline. I have to admit that it's overwhelming to look at the "home" work that has accumulated. I definitely need to read Jack Kornfield's book After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. I have piles of laundry, filing, mail, and unread books staring me in the face. Lots of potential to explore and lots of chaos to unravel.

I am definitely burned out and trying to find my way back to myself as soon as possible. There are all sorts of juicy motherhood stories in the blogosphere right now, but I haven't caught the writing spark this week. I am getting on track with creating new episodes of The Mojo Mom Podcast, which feels like a great start.

And I am especially grateful for today's thought from the Mojo Mom Quote-A-Day widget, from one of my favorite Zen teachers, Cheri Huber:



[The widget moves on, but the February 2 quote said, "Be kinder to yourself than you think you should be."]

I selected all of the widget's quotes, so theoretically they shouldn't surprise me, but it does delight me each morning to see the new thought of the day. I can never resist clicking on it. Maybe that means that the seeds of my wonder and curiosity are still in here somewhere!