Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud
~ Maya Angelou

I was rudely jolted from sleep this morning trying to remember the name of a blog I used to read. What the heck? A blog?

I punched my pillow, pulled the blankets up to my chin and snuggled deeper into the comfort of my warm bed. Eyes closed I decided six am on a rainy Saturday morning was an obscene hour to wake up. Unfortunately, the word “doctor” drifted through my consciousness about the same time. Doctor Who? Yes, I really thought that and then wondered where the TARDIS was. Don’t judge – I was barely awake.

Now I was really getting annoyed and no matter how hard I tried to ignore the compulsion to chase memory wisps the name remained just out of reach. It played hide and seek with my sleep-dulled mind until sleep became wishful thinking. Damn it.

I won’t share what I growled under my breath as I threw back the covers and went in search of my phone to check Twitter. Stay with me here – there is a method to my madness. I followed the blog on Twitter as well because the author was witty and thought provoking. If I checked who I followed I might put an end to this madness. Have you ever tried to locate information on a phone without your glasses? Yeah, it was like that. Good news, I found what I was looking for – Noveldoctor.

For most people that piece of information would be enough. End to the mystery. Sometimes I hate not being “most people”. I grabbed my laptop and pulled up Stephen Parolini’s blog and proceeded to lose myself in all the posts I had missed while I had been sucked into the vortex of insanity my life had been lately. (We’ll leave that for another day – lucky you ☺)

Writing has not been a priority for me in a very long time. The last time I wrote a blog post was over a year ago. A year! It is easy to lose faith in ones self and to let doubt become a best friend, it is much harder to move through the dark times and pull the pieces of a life back together. Finding the joy in writing felt impossible. I was wrong. Sometimes the universe gives us an unexpected gift – a nudge in the right direction – even at six am on a rainy Saturday morning.

What I read made me laugh, made me think and reinforced that I am not alone. It was timely and needed. We never know what impacts our words can have on another. Through our blogs we share our thoughts and sometimes they resonate with a reader on a deeper level. Occasionally, if we are lucky, a reader will leave a comment, but most times we never know how we may have impacted another.

So, if you ever find yourself rudely awakened much too early as I was, my advice is to give in to the inevitable and follow that compulsion. You might find something surprising that will brighten your day.

Thank you, Stephen Parolini. You made my day.