Hello, readers!!

It's been one long, hot, dry spell since I've posted a blog. This time, I offer no apology: I've been wrapping up book #15. This is titled YOU 101: AN ABC BOOK FOR BEING YOUR BEST TEEN SELF NOW! A few days ago, I wrote the final page, printed out a couple of hard copies and mailed them off to my proofreaders. WHEW! I must say, it felt good. Finishing a project always leaves me with a sense of relief, followed by a fairly-quick feeling of "What now?"

So this is my "what now": writing you! 

Yesterday I attended a workshop, and it was one I was reluctant to go to (don't we all have those required things?). But I'm glad I did because I discovered something that I could share with you.

Our "ice-breaker" session (for my readers from other countries than the U.S., this is something conference and workshop attendees do to get to know each other, and it's supposed to be a fun activity) was an assignment: the entire group had to figure out a riddle by finding clues around the room. The clues would each lead to a problem we had to solve. The solution was part of an answer that would give us a number to dial onto several locks on a mysterious box. We didn't know what the box contained, but boy, did we all work hard together to figure out each problem, get each clue and finally unlock the box! Inside the box was a ton of candy, which I did have the willpower to resist.

One of the problems/questions we had to solve is one that intrigued me greatly. The question was, "How many colors are there in a rainbow?" Of course, we all agreed it was seven (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). But when we put that number into the lock on the box, we got nothing! 

There had to be something else. So we looked further into research and discovered there are two more colors: ultraviolet and infrared (these are invisible to the human eye). The interesting thing about a rainbow is that it takes the white light from the sun, which is then broken up by water droplets in the air (which is why we usually see a rainbow just after a rain). The fact that the water droplets CONSISTENTLY break up white light into the same, EXACT order EVERY TIME, is nothing short of miraculous, to me.

This is where YOU come in. You are a miracle, too. Your very cells, your heartbeats, your thoughts and your breaths are all little miracles that make you who you are. And, like a rainbow, your "white light" bends and becomes beautiful colors. I think of these as variations of your personality, and something that makes you unique. 

Next time I will have a guest blogger: it will be a blog from my newest dog, 7-month-old Reese! She's a Boykin Spaniel, like her dad (my other dog, named Dutch), so she's going to have an attitude when she writes her blog (she's already telling me she can't wait to get her paws on my keyboard)! 

Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts on my writing! 

Theresa (T.)