I is for...

"It's your story. Write it with wild abandonment."

If I was to literally write my story with wild abandonment then I would have to start at the fact I was born in a blizzard. Really I was!

I was trying to take my first entry in to the world as my Dad drove frantically to the hospital through all that snow.  My Mother says to this day that Dad's driving scared her more than actually being in labor with me.

My story brings me twin brothers a year and a half later and yet, five years later another brother. These boys drove their sister crazy but I loved them dearly. Well, except when they stole by Barbie dolls to play war games but that is another story.

Later years, I was seen as a 'good girl' with an alternate identity of rebel child. Nobody but my truly closest friends knew that girl. Teen pregnancy would eventually be a part of my story and my parents would come to know that rebel girl. My first marriage would follow and divorce right behind it. I was now a single mother with two children under the age of three.

I went on to become a youth minister and was in puppet ministry for several years. However, I eventually left that part of my life for good as questions of faith became urgent and the need to seek became more apparent.

Among that same time was loneliness, confusion and issues with mental health. All of which combined drove me to about madness.

But oh, I could write my story with abandonment!

I eventually found a new love and a new marriage within a few months of meeting.

I found home in another state that was far removed from my home state of Missouri. More over I lived in the city, somewhere I never thought I would ever live because after all, I was a country girl.

I am now a young Grandma to two special grand-children and life is generally happy.

Is my story over? Oh, no! I have so much more to live and so much more to tell. It is MY story and I can write it any way I want and I will!

~Naila Moon