Time to Say Goodbye by Mariam Kobras
As we journey through life, we come to many crossroads, and each requires we decide a new path to travel.
If we are lucky, there will be a signpost to help us along.
Signposts can come in many different sizes and shapes: a loss, an accident, a sickness, a move to another city, a tornado, a broken heart, a new child, or maybe just a dropped cup of coffee.
But sometimes, that signpost is a person.
Sometimes, that person is the crossing. Sometimes, you meet someone, and that meeting has such an impact that new roads open where before there were none.
Johanna Harness was one of those signpost people for me.
She knew before I did that I was going to be an author someday soon. She was the one who showed me the path hidden in the brambles.
Before there was ever any question of being published, Jo invited me to be a part of her wonderful writing community, the one we all know as #amwriting.
It was on #amwriting that I learned to write a bio for myself, where I learned to blog, where I learned to upload pictures to a blog (yes; I had to learn that), and where I talked about my writing.
Like so many others on that site, I took my first steps as an author there.
I made new friends. Many of them are writers who are still my friends now, and I met them through Jo: Donna Carrick, Julie Butcher, Kerry Schafer, Kristina Wagner Martin, JC Rosen, John Ross Barnes, Jill Kemerer, Lisa Stull. I could go on for an hour and not be able to list them all.
Through #amwriting, I became part of a wonderful family of writers.
We shared that playground: the #amwriting blog. It was a place where we could experiment, write outside our genre, and let the others tell us what they think.
It was a place where we could grow, exchange ideas, talk about experiences, and celebrate our individual successes when they came along.
July 16th, will be both a happy and a sad day for me.
My third book will be released, and it will not be launched on #amwriting like the others.
It will feel weird. To me, a book launch and #amwriting belong together.
But Johanna has come to a crossing on her own path, and is moving on. One of the things she is leaving behind is the #amwriting site.
I will miss it.
But I’m cheering her on, because we must all grow and change, and sometimes part of that means leaving a cherished thing behind.
We are losing a platform, but not the friend, and that’s the most important part of this.
So today, on my last blogging day for #amwriting, I’m saying, “Thank you, and goodbye,” to Johanna Harness, site administrator and blogging host, and “Hello.” to my friend, who will still share her early morning coffee with us on twitter.
Godspeed with your new project, Jo, and I’ll see you on twitter, my friend.
