Love Is In the Air...
A Few Romantic Interludes for You to Enjoy
Please enjoy the audio reading above of this brief Black Eyed Story.
It’s a Season of Celebration for Me and Mine!!!
And Yes, I Hope We Do the Wobble
It’s the season of celebrations over in my neck of the woods – two birthdays, an anniversary, and a college graduation. And as life does what it does, two out of the four grand occasions happen to fall on the same weekend – the hubs' birthday and our wedding anniversary. So, of course, I did what any reasonable person planning two birthday celebrations, a wedding anniversary and a college graduation party would do: I pulled every single thing out of all of our closets, and the pantry, and the linen cupboard that didn’t “spark joy.” And then put all the “keepers” and essentials back into the closets, making it all look better than it did before. Oh! And also, I’m still working on a book… and oh, I also scheduled two IG lives. It may sound like I’m complaining but, these are all things I adore mainly because I can only do them from the comfort of my home. Don’t you love an introvert with a plan? I do. Got a party to plan, a closet to solve, a plot to flesh out, and a couple of IG lives to host all in the same week? I’ll be your cheerleader. I’m proof you can do it. Trust me, you got it.
Unfortunately, my March Madness didn’t leave me a lot of time to write an essay this week. It’s a bummer because it’s my favorite time of the week. I have notes upon notes of things I’m dying to share with you. For example, I asked y’all to watch the documentary Join or Die and now, after a couple of weeks of mulling it over, I think I actually have something we can all join that could actually help us all survive this whole crazy state of affairs. But it’ll have to wait until next week, and for that I’m so so sorry. Some essays can’t be rushed, and this is one of those. Oh, and there’s this essay I want to write for you about magic. I’ve been stuck on the word “magic” for about a year. It’s a heartfelt kind of word, don’t you think? I do. But anon, anon.
For this week in honor of this celebratory season, I thought I’d share with you a handful of romantic things that are keeping my life beautiful – cause I think we all might need a little light to combat the dreariness (well, terror) surrounding us. And if you’d like to share what’s keeping your life beautiful, I’d love to hear all about it. Drop me a note in the comments.
Oh my dear loves – whatever happens, no matter how bleak it all can feel some days, I hope you keep your heads up and find little pockets of romance and beauty whenever and wherever you can.
Peace,
Marcie
THREE ROMANTIC THINGS KEEPING MY LIFE BEAUTIFUL
Emily Henry Books
When I first started writing, I wrote romance novels – and by novels, I mean “novels” – nothing published or even completed. It’s fitting because the first book I ever read that made me think “I wanna be a writer” was Judy Blume’s Forever. Yes, I was much too young and no, I didn’t understand most of it because I was in the fourth grade. Also no, I wasn’t technically allowed to read this book, but also no one told me that I couldn’t, and so I did, and for the next 10 or 15 years, all I read was romance novels: Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele, Judith McNaught. I was hooked. And then I upgraded to Terry McMillan and Bebe Campbell and Anne Tyler. And then I got super literary. And then I got into the occasional fantasy novels. And then I read only nonfiction and memoirs after reading Dorthy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina and I scoffed at all romance novels. But then… oh my gosh, Emily Henry helped me remember why genre fiction was my first love: comfort. Ohhhh.. the comfort, the warmth, the completely dependable and deeply satisfying happy ending.
So far, I’ve binged four Emily Henry audiobooks in a row: Happy Place, Beach Read, Book Lovers, The People We Meet on Vacation and Funny Story. I know what you’re thinking: how on earth did I find time to binge that many books in a week? I’ll tell you how… I pulled out everything from all of the closets in my home and had to figure out how to put it all back! That kind of madness deserves a soundtrack (for me a suitable soundtrack is a row of good bubbly gleeful audiobook romances).
Here’s a funny thing that happened in the course of fleecing our closets and bingeing romances – I found my wedding dress! Y’all it was so tiny it seemed fragile, and I wept and wept and wept for the girl (I was 40 so not quite a girl but younger) that I was. I cried for the figure I no longer had. I even missed my old pageboy haircut. But most of all, I cried because I was listening to all these characters having “firsts” that I could never have again. Seriously, when Simon came to bed that night, I burst into tears mumbling, “I’ll never see you for the first time again. I’ll never get to have a first kiss with you again. I’ll never get to be that girl again….” And my hubs, my gentle giant 6 foot hobbit said, “Love, we’re the happy ending. This is the happily ever after.” Y’all, we’ll get to be each other’s last kiss and wow… how beautiful is that.
Fever Candlelight Concerts
Okay, my trio—me, the hubs and the kid—are nerds. It’s official. We went to a Rings & Dragons Fever Candlelight concert and loved every single second of it. We didn’t just love it, we’re now obsessed with them and can’t wait to attend our next one. And because my words can’t possibly do justice to what these concerts entail, check out the website and the clip below.
Reality TV (but not like you think)
You all know I adore reality TV Shows. These aren’t a guilty pleasure for me. I watch them proudly. And while I will admit many of them will destroy your faith in mankind, I’ve stumbled across a couple that will remind you that we are all connected and all in search of love and friendship and a bit of adventure.
The first show is called Eat, Slay, Love
The kid and I started watching it with every intention of heckling it because that’s our favorite reason to watch Reality TV. But to our surprise and delight the show was touching and thought-provoking and honest. We couldn’t find a bad thing to say about it. We liked all the women even when we didn’t agree with them. We loved seeing Black women traveling to a land that not a lot Black folks think to go to and have the time of their lives. It made us feel seen as two Black femmes, and also inspired us to dream of where we’d like to travel to someday. It was lovely.
The second show is called Dating with My Mates.
The kid and I watch a lot of trash dating shows, mainly so I can be sure that they understand what not to accept in a partner or love interest. Of course, they’re 22 and so their 22-year-old heart inevitably will do whatever their 22 year-old-heart is wont to do. But this show is not a trash dating show. This a lovely show where four friends go on a date together without any competition or dirty dealings or cutting each other down. Four friends go to dinner together and a potential “date” joins them for each course of the meal – a date for appetizers, a date for the main course and a date for dessert. It’s brilliant and sane and marvelous and it’s frankly how all people should date. It’s got all the good vibes of The Great British Bake-Off but it’s a dating show!!!! How novel!!!
PS: Not to be confused with another show called Date My Mate which I’m not even sure we can stream here in the States.
PSS: Also the only place, I’ve found this show is on Amazon Prime Video. All the videos I found on YouTube are not the same show and do not spark joy! So if you find a show on YouTube that looks trashy – it’s not the one I’m talking about. Please find it with the link below.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0DGWJMNNN/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r
These are just a few simple things keeping love in the air over here in my corner of the world. It’s not much but it’s not not much. These things matter. Don’t let anyone try to goad you into believing that joy is somehow not as important as resistance. After all, if we make our hearts impervious to the joys of life—romance, beauty, friendship, adventure—then, what is the point of resisting the powers that be? So, be sure to indulge in as much happiness as you can find. That way, you’ll have something worth fighting for. That way your inner closet will be filled with only “keepers” and essentials.
I loved every moment of this newsletter!!! Thank you so much for the good-hearted reality TV recco's.
What's bringing me both joy and hope is a website and newsletter called FixTheNews.com, where they report stories of genuine progress. They've eliminated malaria in Egypt — for the first time in 8,000 years! Dolphins have come back to the North Sea! Also (an excerpt):
Did you know that in the past five years, over 100 million people in Africa have gained access to electricity? Liberia has seen access go from 5% in 2017 to 35% today, Rwanda has gone from 6% in 2009 to 75% today, Nigeria is now at 70%, up from 50% a decade ago, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have reached 90%, and Rwanda, Senegal and Kenya are all targeting universal access by 2030.
https://fixthenews.com if you want more! I turn to it every time I despair.
Ooh, love the idea of an essay on magic - I like how you call it "heartfelt"!
Beautiful things: I joined a small book club, made fermented pickles for the first time, and am reviving my ginger beer brewing habit. And the sun is shining! Here's one that makes me smile (I'm in a different city): My mom just hosted a "Happy Party" and invited around 30 neighbors to meet one another, share and celebrate the good things in life, and sent them off with flower seeds. How cute is that!