Heroines

You going through hell?

Keep going.

Winston Churchill said that, not me.

When I’m going through hell, I whine.

Luckily I live alone.

This may be why.

Look, I know this has been a bad week. Hurricanes, flooding, fires, a pandemic, and none of it is a laughing matter.

Yet we persevere.

Which is the point.

I say this because you might need to hear it, and if you are persevering, I’m applauding for you. It’s not easy, now that September is here.

We thought the pandemic would be over.

We thought we would our kids would be back in school.

We’re sick of masks. We’re even sick of talking about masks.

And don’t get us started on vaccines.

But I’m here to tell you it’s OK to vent.

You’re only human. I think if more people vented at home, they wouldn’t be screaming at random strangers in a parking lots.

In any event, hang in.

As Maya Angelou says: Every storm runs out of rain.

My news is I’m having a month of Zoom meetings with book clubs who read Eternal, my new book. I have never done this before. Normally I would’ve had everyone to the house, like I have for the past fourteen years, in a huge backyard festival. Francesca and I love doing it, but we had to cancel the second year in a row.

And we’re making the best of things.

It turns out making the best of things isn’t the worst of things.

I have Zoom calls with friends and for work, and I do Zoom yoga, joined by friends in Wyoming and Vermont because yoga class isn’t in person.

Zoom isn’t perfect, but people don’t do well in isolation. Here’s the choice:

Zoom or Doom?

Zooming with a book club is the best thing of all, because though some clubs broke up during the pandemic, there are plenty that stayed together.

They met outside, wearing coats.

They set up chairs on driveways.

One club met on the rooftop, six feet apart.

They shouted what they loved about the book they read, which amazingly, was mine.

And let’s talk about the Bucks County Women’s Chorus Book Club.

This book club, which I just Zoomed with, is formed of members of the Bucks County Women’s Chorus, a ninety-women-strong group founded by its amazing director, Pat Guth, in 2012. The chorus sings every genre of choral music all over the world and has even performed at the White House. Pat told me that when the pandemic started and they couldn’t sing together, “we all had huge holes in our lives.” So they started the book club as a way to stay together, then quickly realized they were helping each other through a terrible time.

During their Zoom about my novel, they became my own personal heroines.

The thing about the dark times is that you have to make your own light, and music.

I see their strength, resilience, humor, and heart in every book club I Zoom with.

And in all of my friends.

And in you.

I know you are Making The Best of Things, every day.

I admire each and every one of you for your perseverance, for your resilience, and for getting tough when they going gets tough, each in your own way.

We can still be there for each other, whether we’re talking about a book, the water in our basement, how aggravated we are, how happy we are, whether we have a new grandchild, or a new puppy.

There’s so much incivility these days, but there is also kindness.

The antidote is love.

Find the people you love and tell them so.

Come hell or high water.

Look for Lisa’s best-selling historical novel “Eternal” in stores now. Also look for Francesca’s critically acclaimed debut novel, “Ghosts of Harvard,” now in paperback.