When Deb handed me her book last summer in June, hoping it would get me inspired to design a book cover for it, I had no idea what a great journey I was embarking on. Granted, there were no mountains to climb and monsters to fight (but the metaphoric ones, of course), this was rather one of those extraordinarily ordinary experiences, perfectly in tune with the book’s subtitle.

And the journey began with, well… a journey, a real one. I was boarding a plane to go visit my family in Romania for three weeks, so I figured – what better reading material than something light and easy? The story managed to captivate me and I often found myself laughing out loud and reading pieces of it to my family.

No spoiler alert necessary – I won’t be telling you of the book, that’s yours to discover when the time comes.  But I’d like to share a little story that truly impressed us and it so happens that it happened while I was reading the book (but there are no coincidences, right?).

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In Madalina’s design studio discussing the Zee/Zoey site

By now, you have heard me mention the name Madalina numerous times. Not only is she the enormously talented and gifted graphic designer who helped me create Zee and Zoey’s Chronicle Connection and my book, “The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey – a Journey of the Extraordinarily Ordinary,” but she has become a dear friend of mine, which is a wonderful bonus. When I first met her, it was a business relationship – client and designer. But, as time has gone by and we have spent countless hours in person, through emails, and on the phone perfecting our Zee/Zoey visions, she has become part of our family and we all adore her, both human and feline!

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The holidays are not the time one wants to be alone, especially when children and grandchildren live many states away. As was my habit, I left work early one Friday afternoon in 1994, heading straight to my friend’s home in New Hampshire for the weekend. From Schenectady, NY this was a three hour trip but, not as the crow flies!  Traveling through Vermont, most of the roads are through mountains and, given the time of the year that it was, following plows as they spread their gift of salt and sand was the preferred method of forward motion.

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After the birth of the kittens, the first eight weeks of their life is like fast forwarding a newborn baby to the terrible two’s/three’s of a toddler in a span of 2 short months – basically, the proverbial “calm before the storm.” Even if you have never had children, you probably know someone with children, or at the very least, I’m sure you can remember a time in your life when you have encountered either a newborn or a toddler in lets say, a setting like a grocery store, a movie, a restaurant, or a church. One minute they are precious little angels, cooing and smiling, the next they are a whirlwind of energy and emotion so heightened, that it is exhausting merely looking at them in passing. Read more

From previous posts, you already know I am a strong believer in karma and the synchronicity of past, present, and future in one’s life. As it is, we live the moments of our life in “real time” so that we don’t necessarily know or understand at the time, that one of these snapshots will someday become significant or have greater meaning down the road. Some call these greater connections fate, some call them destiny, and some don’t believe at all and just label them a “coincidence.” In our house, we are strong proponents of the mindset of the famous author, SQuire Rushnell, who calls these wonderful later-on connections a “godwink.” Meaning, that sometimes you just question life. You question your purpose. You don’t understand why life has to be so hard or teach us so many lessons. Then, out of nowhere, you get what you think is an odd coincidence and you kind of stand up and take notice. What’s happening is that you are actually getting a personal message, a wink so to speak, of reassurance from above to keep the faith and that everything will be all right. For me, that moment was Heat Cat 5, that cat that I was introduced to out of the blue, by a complete stranger, a US Army soldier stationed in Kuwait, who had me post the cat’s picture in my “Other People’s Cats” photo album I have on the blog. Read more