Slept in a little longer this morning. Longer than I usually do. A rarity.
Quiet. Peaceful.
In bed, I looked out the window and saw blue sky with whitish-gray clouds, and I wondered if it was warm, cool, or cold. I realize that temperature is specific to any individual, and I’m one who likes warm and hot, not cool or cold. I checked the temp on my phone. Cold. Not getting too much warmer, either.
Still, it was pretty, and it was peaceful.
I could smell the roast Kim had prepared for our Sunday dinner. The French Onion soup pungent. Brought back times from my childhood when mom would make a similar dinner. All of us gathered around the table to share the meal, tell our stories, laugh. It will be just the two of us this day. That is okay. More than okay.
No plans for the day. A bit of writing. Some reading. Taking it slow and easy, a pleasant break from the faster pace of the week. Needed.
Nice to have a break, a pause, in the week.
During the week, I have kids complain that their computer is frozen. Won’t advance, and it won’t go back. I tell them to turn it off and then turn it back on. For whatever reason, this works more often than not.
And like the computer that sometimes needs to be reset during the day, our bodies and our minds need a reset, too. Good for the head. Good for the soul. Take a step back, turn off, quiet down.
As I sit in front of my laptop this morning pecking away at my keys, only the hum of the refrigerator is my company. Kim, working elsewhere on some catch-up from her week. She sips hot tea, a morning ritual for her, just like her jogging, just like her cross fit.
I’m content to sit at the table armed with my iced tea. As hard as it is to turn completely off, my mind races with the novel I’m working on, the eight books I have on the market, and the promotion I need to do. Pleasurable for me, though. Not a task. Not a chore. Certainly not drudgery. It is the way I relax. Inventing new worlds. Throwing hurdles and obstacles in my characters’ paths. Watching them, hearing them negotiate safe passage.
As I write this, the song, Sunday Drive by Brett Eldridge, plays in the back of my mind. His opening lyrics:
They didn't ever say where we were going
We just climbed into the backseat
Eyes wide open to the picture show outside
I guess we really didn't understand it all
Remember looking up at them in the front row
Hands touched together, almost out of sight
It's been a long, hard week, but now the slow release
Of a Sunday afternoon
And we were only young
But they were trying hard to reach us
How was I to know
That there was something so worth keepin'?
'Cause we were
Watching the world through an open window
Trees lined up like dominoes
This old car could find its own way home
It's the ordinary things that mean so much
That's where I learned it all from them
To fight, to love, to laugh again
Man, I thought we were only wasting time
Out on a Sunday drive
The sun warms your soul
just like an old friend
Singing songs along that ribbon of a road
And everyone you love is sitting there so close
You're never thinking that you'd ever get old
No, you'll never get old
The
song and video is a much needed help for resetting and recharging. You can find
it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUJZpPQrA5s
His gift to us. My gift to you.
And I wonder, what is it you do to reset and recharge? What is it you do to turn off? In many respects, we are the same or similar. We need to reset and replenish. All of us. All. Something to think about . . .
Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!
To My Readers:
I
was interviewed on a UK radio show this morning about my writing and my newest
book, Blaze In, Blaze Out. For those who missed it, they
will repeat the show on Sunday, April 24 at 8:30 AM EST. Follow
this link: unityliveradio.co.uk I hope you give it a listen!
If
you have read one of my books, I would like to ask a favor. If you could go
online and write a review or, at the least, give a rating on the book, it would
be of great help. Both a review and a rating would be wonderful. The review
could be one or two lines. It doesn’t have to be long. Just let others know you
read it and hopefully, enjoyed it. Obviously, 4s and 5s are the best. Thanks
for this consideration.
Connect with me on Social Media:
Author Website: www.jrlewisauthor.blog/
Twitter at @jrlewisauthor
Facebook at: www.facebook.com/Joseph.Lewis.Author
Amazon at: www.amazon.com/Joseph-Lewis/e/B01FWB9AOI /
Blaze In, Blaze Out: A Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A
Reader’s Ready Recommended Read! A BestThriller’s Editor’s Pick!
Eiselmann
and O’Connor thought the conviction of Dmitry Andruko, the head of a Ukrainian crime family, meant the end. It was only the beginning.
They forgot that revenge knows no boundaries, vindictiveness knows no
restraints, and ruthlessness never worries about collateral damage.
Andruko hired contract killers to go after and kill O’Connor and Eiselmann. The
killers can be anyone and be anywhere. They can strike at any time. They care
nothing of collateral damage. Andruko believes a target is a target, and in the
end, the target must die. https://amzn.to/34lNllP
Betrayed: A PenCraft 1st Place Winner for
Thriller-Fiction! A Maxy Award Runner-Up for Mystery/Suspense! A Literary Titan
Silver Book Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read Award Winner! A
Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner for Fiction-Crime-Mystery!
Betrayed is Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and
Paperback! https://amzn.to/3AfUUpS
A
late-night phone call, a missing kid, a murdered family, but no one is talking.
A promise is made and kept, but it could mean the death of a fifteen-year-old
boy. Greed can be all-consuming, and seeing is not believing. No one can be
trusted, and the hunters become the hunted. https://amzn.to/2EKHudx
Spiral Into Darkness: Named a Recommended Read in the Author Shout Reader Awards!
He blends in. He is
successful, intelligent, and methodical. So far, he has murdered eight people.
There is no discernible pattern. There are no clues. There are no leads. The
only thing the FBI and local police have to go on is the method of death: two
bullets to the face- gruesome and meant to send a message. But it’s difficult
to understand any message coming from a dark and damaged mind. Two adopted
boys, struggling in their own world, do not know they are the next targets.
Neither does their family. And neither does local law enforcement. https://amzn.to/2RBWvTm
Caught in a Web: A PenCraft Literary Award Winner! Named “One of the Best
Thrillers of 2018!” by BestThrillers.com
Caught in a Web is also available in Audio Book, Kindle and
Paperback! http://bit.ly/2WO3kka
They
found the bodies of high school and middle school kids dead from an overdose of
heroin and fentanyl. A violent gang, MS-13, controls the drug trade along the
I-94 and I-43 corridors. They send Ricardo Fuentes to find out who is cutting
in on their business, shut it down and teach them a lesson. But he has an
ulterior motive: find and kill a fifteen-year-old boy, George Tokay. Detectives
Jamie Graff, Pat O’Connor and Paul Eiselmann race to find the source of the
drugs, shut down the ring, and find Fuentes before he kills anyone else. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKF7696
The Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:
FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the
bodies of six boys left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though
they live in separate parts of the country, the lives of Kelliher, 11-year-old
Brett McGovern, and 11-year-old George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle.
The two boys become interwoven with the same thread Kelliher holds in his hand.
The three of them are on a collision course and when that happens, their
futures grow dark as each search for a way out. https://amzn.to/34nXBH5
Book One, Stolen Lives: Editor’s Pick by BestThrillers!
Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Crime Thriller finalist in
the 2021 Best Thriller Book Awards!
Two thirteen-year-old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street.
Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they will end
up like the other kids they found- dead! They have no leads, no clues, and
nothing to go on. To make the investigation that much tougher, Kelliher
suspects that one of his team members might be involved. https://amzn.to/3oMo4qZ
Book Two of the Lives Trilogy, Shattered Lives:
The boys are home, but now they have to fit back in with their families and
friends. Their parents and the FBI thought the boys were safe. They were until
people began dying. Now the hunt is on for six dangerous and desperate men who
vow revenge. With no leads and nothing to go on, the FBI can only sit back and
wait. A dangerous game that threatens not only the boys, but their
families. https://amzn.to/2RAYIk2
Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:
Three dangerous men with nothing to lose offer a handsome reward to anyone
willing to kill fourteen-year-old Brett McGovern. He does not know that he, his
younger brother, and a friend are targets. More than anyone, these three men
vow to kill George, whom they blame for forcing them to run and hide. A fun
vacation turns into a nightmare and ends where it started, back on the Navajo Nation
Reservation, high on a mesa held sacred by George and his grandfather.
Outnumbered and outgunned, George will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect
his adoptive father and his adoptive brothers- but can he? Without knowing who
these men are? Or where they are? Without knowing whom to trust? Is he prepared
for betrayal that leads to his heartbreak and death? http://bit.ly/SplinteredLives
Photo
Courtesy of Clay Banks and Unsplash.
