Past and Present

Tara Lucchino and Rebecca Gebhart in Freshwater's
If You Don't Weaken - photo by Scott Pakudaitis

I wasn’t going to write a New Year’s Day or year’s end post today, but something about stopping and taking stock persuaded me to try it.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunities I was given last year, and how they’ve worked out so far. My play If You Don’t Weaken was produced by Freshwater Theatre and I couldn’t have asked for a better production.

My book The Beat on Ruby’s Street was published on the UPDrift imprint for middle grade novels at Booktrope Publishing, and the experience has been grand so far. I have found an extraordinary team that makes me prouder every day to be part of it. 

Cover art: Gwen Gades

There was also a lot of pain coming at me in 2015 I lost one of my closest friends in the world through an insidious disease and am still feeling wounded. Susan Jeffers Casel was not only a friend but an extraordinary editor who did the initial edits for The Beat on Ruby’s Street.

My sister is going through many difficulties and because I’m far away, I’m limited in what I can do to help, which is also very frustrating. Then there are the million things you worry about as a parent every day. 

Just this week my son escaped serious injury in a terrifying car accident, and I am beyond grateful. And of course, doing battle with all the “might be” demons that invade my sleep at night.

In the end, I guess, all we can control is how we deal with what’s in front of us. I am starting work this year on a new musical and on part two of the Beat Street Series, taking Ruby Tabeata’s adventures a little bit further.

What I wish for all of us in the new year is that we give ourselves space and room to grow, breathe, stretch and be ambitious; live and breathe deeply; escape danger and better yet, avoid it entirely; love, enjoy  being loved, and most of all keep walking forward on the path we're on, knowing all we really have is what we learned from the past and how we live in the present.

Happy new year.