So Grateful for…Experience

 

In my life I’ve had a lot of experiences. Good. Not so good. Wondrous. Horrible. Heart-lifting. Heart breaking.

 

And with time I’ve come to appreciate them all—even the worst.

 

I had my gallbladder die inside of me and I was very sick and I was in the hospital for thirteen days and a lot of it was incredibly painful. But my husband “R” was there every step of the way. And my mom drove six hours and spent so much time with me—which was so important because R had to go to work. That was before we could get legally married so he wasn’t able to get FMLA time to be with me. I can’t imagine what it would have been like without them. And I finally got out of the hospital and I got better and I have experience….

 

I have been to Israel and Egypt. I have stood in places that Jesus once stood. I was there during Passover and witnessed the dining room staff removed half the buffet and replace it with what was proper to eat during that holiday. I walked into a tomb that some believe could have been the one where Jesus was placed after he died. I have looked up high at a Roman aqueduct and down at a colossal collapsed Ramesside statue and been in awe of the Sphinx as I gazed into its face and been inside a pyramid. And I have experience.

 

I flirted with a pretty red head at a pot luck at a friend’s house and got to know him and fell in love and met his family and got married and went to New Orleans for our honeymoon and it was in the newspaper and people recognized us at two different airports! It was a fairy tale. One that turned dark as I discovered he was a sex addict and fooled around on me hundreds of times and gave me sexually transmitted diseases and through a miracle didn’t give me HIV. I learned to value myself and pull away from codependence and learned self-worth and left him. And I have experience.

 

I saw this gorgeous guy gazing at me across a room and because I was so hurt and injured it pissed me off and I went up to him and got in his face and said, “I think you’re f*cking hot!” (thinking it would scare him away) and he said, “Really? Wow. I’ve thought you were hot for years!”

 

Me?

 

We got to know each other and I fell in love again and we got married twice—once ten years ago with a big public celebration where over two hundred people came, and a second time last year in Baltimore, Maryland and it was legal and it was paid for by my fellow authors and readers and fans and friends. Another fairy tale and one that doesn’t seem to ever be ending.

 

And I have experience.

 

There has been dark—oh so dark—and there has been light—blazing shining light!

 

And I have learned that all of it is important. It all makes me a better person. It all teaches me to look for the good in everything. It all compels me to leap and trust that the net will appear.

 

And experience makes me a better writer because I can speak from the depths of my heart on so many issues.

 

One great thing about getting older is that you discover that it really does get better. I can look back at the worst of times and clearly see it got better every time. So now I know if something bad happens again—and in life bad things happen—I know it most assuredly will get better, no matter what.

 

That’s pretty awesome. Because good times or bad, overall? I love my life. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

 

Good or bad, I have a wonderful husband whom I am legally married to, I have a daughter, I have about the best dog in the world, I have a house, incredible friends and I am living my dream writing the kind of stories that make my heart soar—and hopefully reader’s hearts as well.

 

What could be better than that?

 

Namasté,

B.G. Thomas

 

~~~~~~

 

B.G. is a novelist and blogger. For the past year he has made and entry every day in his blog “365 Days of Silver,” where he finds something every day to be grateful for. You can find it right here: https://365daysofsilver.wordpress.com/

 

B.G. loves romance, comedies, fantasy, science fiction and even horror—as far as he is concerned, as long as the stories are character driven and entertaining, it doesn’t matter the genre. He has gone to conventions since he was fourteen years old and has been lucky enough to meet many of his favorite writers. He has made up stories since he was child; it is where he finds his joy.

 

In the nineties, he wrote for gay magazines but stopped because the editors wanted all sex without plot. “The sex is never as important as the characters,” he says. “Who cares what they are doing if we don’t care about them?” Excited about the growing male/male romance market, he began writing again. Gay men are what he knows best, after all. He submitted his first story in years and was thrilled when it was accepted in four days.

 

“Leap, and the net will appear” is his personal philosophy and his message to all. “It is never too late,” he states. “Pursue your dreams. They will come true!”

 

Visit his website and his author blog at http://bthomaswriter.wordpress.com/ where you can contact him. He loves to hear from readers and is always quick to respond.