Somehow this symbol resonates well as an "X" for ending and an "O" for new opportunities with the warmth of what Sam and I had.
I'm sitting here reading grief counseling suggestions about positive ways of moving on with one’s life. It occurs to me that I want to have some new beginnings, but I also want to keep most of the projects going that Sam and I started together.
I see a quote pinned onto Sam’s work area bulletin board downstairs: “Strive for excellence, not perfection”. There is another quote taped to one of the cupboards in our kitchen: "Art is the illusion of spontaneity".
For me, to move forward with our writing projects, what I’ll miss the most are Sam's critiques I used to get before we published. I used to do the same for him. Nothing was more satisfying than to get totally absorbed for a couple days into publishing our HEAL THY SELF newsletters.
Most of the time Sam set a theme with a drawing. Next, I scanned it and typed the explanation. The hardest part was to decipher his handwriting. Next I wrote up more articles he had scribbled or from other newsletters with testimonials. Sam read what I wrote, made comments and added a complementary drawing.
Then, we couldn't get over how many times we had to reread and still make corrections for several days. I can still see Sam taking the pages upstairs for bedtime reading. In the morning, I read all the scribbles done in pencil and made the corrections on the computer. It was a lot of fun
It’s not going to be easy to find another writing partner, but that’s where I might find some new beginnings. Everything doesn’t have to be the same.