– Taylorsville, North Carolina, 5:13 PM.

As some of you may have read earlier, I was one angry writer. And I’m not going to apologize for the crude & explicit content I composed in response to a terrible comment on Facebook. There is no room for apologies; when it comes to people that blatantly use words to hurt GOOD people, I have no sympathy for them. But I did not start this column to re-hash what has already been written.

Just before I started writing this, I was engaged in the Second Module of my Media Writing Essentials classes. There are 39 Lessons in the Second Module – the emphasis is on prewriting – & I felt I need to stop the lesson for the day. It was hard to concentrate on. The material is not hard to comprehend, I was just in another world… my mind floating in how different & wonderful my days living in the South have been.

Today in the mail was an envelope from my mother. Inside were two letters I sent to her & my father last year. One, dated May 29, 2021, stated:

I write at the dinner table or standing up at my dresser. The Smith-Corona stays on the dresser, just the right height; in fact, at this very moment, I am moving from one typer to the other. No Joke! I will finish a couple of lines in this letter then go to the older ty[pewriter to punch out some more lines about wanting to go back to school.

That was last year. My goodness. And I remember writing that letter.

Now, I AM in school. Well… taking online courses, which has to count, right? It’s something. Something I didn’t have a year ago, and, if I am going to be honest, something I thought was just a pipe dream turned into a reality…

Many things – many wonders – within my life over the past year have profoundly shaped me more than any other time in my life. Many factors, namely support from people that were brave enough to stick with me or gave me a chance, are the true heroes in my story. People like my wife, parents & sister, readers, & the ever-present & available works from other writers have made it so I can be where I am now.

Oh, I can’t forget about the dogs! Talk about therapy. Get yourself a puppy if you need some light in your world.

Our dogs have been a major contributing factor to my happiness. More smiles are spread when looking into the face of an ornery puppy.