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Stacy Boone's avatar

I am not sure where to begin with this chapter - its beauty from beginning to conclusion. Every moment is a sentence with showing: an emotional weight, a longing, a remembering, a grounding into the immediate. There are acknowledgments of truth, wonderments of how things might have been different, touchable now, do not forget, always remember this, times.

You, my friend, are a beautiful and skillful writer.

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Bee Lilyjones's avatar

Thank you, Stacy.

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Julie Snider's avatar

Bee, your pictorial writing and ability to make the personal universal transfixes me as Imread and listen to your story. Truly, a masterful telling.

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Bee Lilyjones's avatar

Thank you, Julie.

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delice fowler's avatar

A brilliant read Bee. X

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Bee Lilyjones's avatar

Thank you Delice. X

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Sarah Moorcroft's avatar

I feel as though I have read something that is usually paywalled? What a beautiful, powerful, heartbreaking yet inspiring story Bee. I love the stories of your community and Norse culture too, the way you weave them into your own experiences is magical.

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Bee Lilyjones's avatar

Thank you, Sarah.

That chapter was particularly difficult in every way possible so your comment is mightily encouraging.

And yes, the chapters are usually behind a paywall, this one will be joining them in a couple of weeks. Most times I post, I lose one or two subscribers but gain one or two subscribers as well so I thought I’d try to keep this one free to read for a while and see what happens.

I hope you are feeling stronger with each new day. I was poorly last night and found myself missing the good company of my Alfie dog.

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Sarah Moorcroft's avatar

There is nothing better than a cuddly dog when you are feeling low, Billy jumps onto the bed when I am hurting in the night, snugs up, and keeps me company until the pain meds work. I am so sorry that you don’t have Alfie to cuddle, heartbreaking:(

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Bee Lilyjones's avatar

Ah but it is so good to hear your Billy takes care of you.

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Amanda C. Sandos's avatar

Somehow, when I got to the moment about the Marsh Marigold shining in the sun, I burst into tears. You had already built so much emotional context into your words by that point. I love how you take the history and then thread it through current events, using the plants as our touchstones, and, as usual I am just seamlessly along for the ride. Thank you for sharing another glorious look at life in your little village.

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Bee Lilyjones's avatar

I hope they were happy tears, Amanda. Weaving in and out of history back into the immediate present tense is challenging, finding the balance etc. I’m encouraged by your comments, you’ve been such a help. Thank you.

I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, it was a hectic day and then I had a rough night.

If, by the way, you would like a one to one masterclass re recording and producing audio I’m happy to oblige. Let me know and we’ll set something up.

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Amanda C. Sandos's avatar

They were just unexpected tears of how beautiful the words were. Nothing unhappy about them. And yes to the master class! That would be grand. I’m headed to the beach for the rest of this week though so no rush on setting that up. Xo

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Bee Lilyjones's avatar

Enjoy!

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