The Weeper

I want to start off by expressing enormous gratitude to SIS BJ! She really handled things for us this week and she was great!! BJ, I hope you join us many more times to come. It was a blast.

Now, I don’t know if I’ve always been this way—I’ll have to ask my siblings for verification—but lately I’ve been a spicket, a virtual waterfall, a leaky faucet. I am the weeper.

I cry at the drop of a hat and before you start wondering if I’m depressed or falling off the deep end, I’ll explain that these are mainly good tears, cleansing tears. These are happy tears.

I would like to share with you a couple of circumstances that have initiated these tears and caused the weeper to emerge.

Last week—after having received free tickets—my husband and I were able to take our two children to The Jonas Brothers concert. My son who is only four years old didn’t last past the second song of the opening act. Too loud. And boy was it. My daughter, on the other hand, was in heaven. She’s seven years old and was completely in awe of the entire set-up. The screaming audience, the stage, the light show, the “talent”, she couldn’t get enough. Perched on the edge of her seat beaming from ear to ear and loving life as much as anyone could in those moments. I didn’t watch the show, I watched her with a thick throat and soggy cheeks. I am the weeper.

A couple of months ago I took my first online class. The class was called Deconstructing Emotion and it was supposed to be an interactive class. There were homework assignments to turn in and lessons to learn. Only a few of us were brave enough or willing to share our work with the others. I was timid at first but realized I wouldn’t learn as much if I didn’t participate to the full extent. There was one assignment that was particularly difficult for me but I plowed through and turned it in. The instructor, who happens to be a best selling author and respected instructor, gave me such a wonderful reply acknowledging how much she enjoyed my excerpt and thought it was quite good, I immediately broke down with excited, astonished tears. I am the weeper.

Most recently I received a phone call from my sister, Beth. She asked if I had a moment to talk and I answered, “of course I do.” She told me that someone wanted to talk to me and I immediately got nervous, sweaty palms and all. See, I knew Beth was at the RWA National Conference, and all of a sudden, I had a feeling I knew who was about to be on the other end of that phone. I have a favorite author; I think we all do. This author happens to be a friend of Beth’s. I didn’t know this until recently. I’ve been reading this author’s work for years and have loved her since the first one. Okay, back to it, I knew, knew she would be saying hello any moment and all I could think was please don’t be her, please don’t be her. Now, I know you think I’ve lost my mind but I didn’t want to talk to her because I knew I was going to sound like an idiot. I hear someone come on the line. “Hi, Barb. This is such and such.” (I’m afraid to share her real name for fear I will embarrass her) My response… “Shut up!” oh yeah, I am so witty. Anyway, I held it together (barely) and she was absolutely great. I hope I came across sounding at least halfway intelligent, but I really doubt it. I was in heaven and bumbling my words. But I was touched and when she gave the phone back to Beth, the faucet started and didn’t stop for a long time. It meant the world to me that Beth took the time to do this for me, to honor me with that phone call. Thank you, Beth, from the bottom of my heart, and because of you, once again, I am the weeper!

Anyone else been weeping lately? Do share. I’ve got the box of tissues all ready!

Also, I've decided on a pen name and barring no complications, I will be able to use it. From now on I'll add it to my signature!

SIS Barb writing as Elle J Rossi