Friday, July 11, 2014
WILD FLOWERS - Coming Soon!
July 11th, 2014
Hello, Everyone,
Today, I "approved" of the interior of my forthcoming work called WILD FLOWERS. I had already approved the front and back covers, but was still making modifications to the interior - until today. As it looks now, WILD FLOWERS will be 284 pages long, though from an Introduction to a final song, it will be 271 pages long.
What's next? CreateSpace - an Amazon publishing affiliate with which I am working - will be sending me a completed copy of WILD FLOWERS in the next week. I am supposed to look it over and "approve" it again. Given all the effort we have already put in on this thing to get things right, I doubt there will be any additional changes, but I could find a grammatical error that I will judge has to be changed. In that case, it will be another "final change" before WILD FLOWERS can be passed forward to what is called "post publication" processes. I won't go into any of that. In general, however, I think all of that "post publication" stuff will be done by the first of October - and maybe even by the first of September. I will keep you updated.
Today also marks a bit of an anniversary. Forty-eight years ago today, our family buried our Dad. Just 4 days before that on July 7th, 1966, Dad was a "working pedestrian" working as one of a road crew, just outside of a small town called Powell in northern Wyoming. He was standing still on one side of the road and was hit by a pickup truck which had crossed the road from the opposite direction. Dad was killed instantly. The fellow who was driving the pickup truck had fallen asleep at the wheel - and simply lost control of his vehicle.
I could say more, but why? We all lose loved ones in unexpected ways - as well as expected ways. In the end, as I see it, we all have to go - regardless of how we go. The lesson I constantly learn when I hear of another dying - be it expected or unexpected - is that only a fool will live life like it will never end. I guess we should live every moment like it is our last moment because at some point, a last moment will come.
For me, however, a "last moment" is but the "first moment" of a next life. I don't think death changes anything of any importance. We simply continue in another venue from where we left off in a previous venue.
Several years after Dad passed, I dreamed that I was driving down a road in Denver. Looking out my window, I thought I saw Dad standing beside a semi truck with no load. The person was filling his truck with gas. Immediately, I decided to check it out and drove into the gas station where this guy was filling his truck. I stepped out of my car and identified my Dad for really being my Dad. I could not believe it! I looked at the guy and said "Dad, it is you! I thought you were dead!"
Well, Dad looked at me and said, "Do I look like I am dead?" And then Dad got into his truck, rolled down the window, and said, "Son, keep going the way you are going." Then he drove away.
And I think that's the way it is too. Death is but a pause that separates two lives of a single soul. The important thing to do is to live life knowing that death is but a pause. Why fear it? It only lasts a moment! Right?
Thanks, Dad, for the dream - and the lesson!
Have a wonderful summer, Everyone! For what it's worth, WILD FLOWERS is coming soon!
Gently,
Francis William Bessler
(Frank, Will)