Happy anniversary to me

The first piece I wrote on theProse was published on December 18, 2018. It was a short poem for a challenge that goes to a 404 page now so, it's a mystery. My submission was quite short:

On a precipice

Cradled in gnarly roots, 

steep, rocky mountain behind

and below,

I gaze upon brilliant blue.

(https://www.theprose.com/post/247380/on-a-precipice)

I submitted two other pieces on that day as well, but they were written before I discovered theProse.

In December 2018, my husband was just starting to accept the Parkinson's diagnosis he'd received in February, 2017. My son had joined the family business while also delving deeply into a passion he'd developed starting in August 2017: Ironman competitions. I was a year into "retirement" from a 26 year career in foreign language education and building a career in acting. I had also started painting and I was trying to write more. I had been writing for decades (so many notebooks), but I wanted to do so more consistently.

And I really wanted to be read, perhaps even published.

Enter, theProse.

Finding theProse was a godsend for me: for the writing it has encouraged thus enabling me to improve (I think); the reading that has touched and inspired me; the genius I have had the privilege of witnessing myriad times over the years; the joy of being read, understood and appreciated; the prizes and challenges I have won; and, most importantly, the friends I have made (some gone now), who I feel like I know though we have never met (in person).

Nearly five years to the day have passed since that first post. My husband has made it through all the steps of grief for the loss of life as he knew it and works hard to avoid the slippery slope of despair. My son continues to work with his dad and now has a coach and a team with which to train for his Ironman competitons. He also has a fiancée now, having proposed earlier this year (wedding in August 2024).

As for me, I am still writing, a lot more longer prose than poetry. When I get hold of a good topic, I find it hard to stop writing. Still no novel in me yet, though. I have a room full of canvases and one of my paintings is on the wall of my son's home. And I had the lead in my first short film and a national commercial this year.

So, life is good.

And one reason why is because of the community here at theProse.

I am so grateful to have found you.

Love to you all,

Danielle

(Dctezcan)