River Jordan || Author, Speaker, Radio Personality

Why do we do it? Why do we let furry creatures carve a place inside our hearts and just curl up there? Do you see this good, for notmuch of anything pile of fur on our couch? Well, he went missing for over 24 hours and I was sleepless and checking the doors every hour for his return. The house became so still and quiet you could hear - well, everything now that he wasn't around barking, barking, barking. He even barks in his sleep. No kidding.

But he's good at one thing and that's assing out hugs which is something he does on a regular basis.

Okay - so I'm a sucker and pushover and I did everything BUT hire the official Pet Detective that is like a real life Ace Ventura. I posted flyers, made phone calls, put adds out, and felt heartsick. And I realized if I had never GOT THE DANG DOG, then I would never have felt the pain OF LOSING THE DOG. But if you had seen what he looked like when he was just 8 weeks old (baby polar bear is best description) then you would know how easy it was to fall in love with this thing that could actually fit into my lap and still THINKS HE CAN!

Okay - he's back home, back on the couch, back to barking and life is back to normal around our house. Just when Moses the cat thought he was home free and the fur rug was gone for good!

Well, the hummingbirds are gone. Last one pulled out of our depot October 2nd. It was a sunny day and temperatures were expecting in the 80s but they must have known what was on the way. From the looks of the leaves beginning to change up around our place they were right on target. So now our porch rocking, feet on the railing business is moving from summer nights filled with crickets to last nights cries of the Coyotes. I'm expecting the Owls to show back up again and take their rightful place and once again the night will belong to winter and the wild. The leaves will fall and the sky around our place will open wide to the night sky filled with stars that watch from their place in the rolling heavens. We'll build a fire and watch the sunset over that ridge over there that just became visibly again after months of being blanketed by green. The raw wind will come whipping up over that bluff and catch me off guard and make me remember things that I thought I had forgotten. Memories of mittens, school buses, little red noses, and hot chocolate.

I'll ask my man to build a fire (he's a pushover really for that one honey-do) and watch the flames defy the cold, cast firelight over the lazy, sleeping animals while I pick up a book that I should have finished this summer but life got so busy.

Think I'll just slow down a little bit. Okay - not quite yet. We've had a busy week in Nashville with ESPN being in town for the Vandy/Auburn game, with everybody being in town for the DEBATES, and now this weekend - a booklovers dream with the 20th Anniversary of the Southern Festival of the Book down on the Legislative Plaza where BACKSTORY RADIO will be broadcasting live. OH YES, and with the upswing of the publicity just now beginning for the newest novel, SAINTS IN LIMBO, from Random House/Waterbrook due out May 16, 2009.
So maybe, not this week or even the next one but soon, even if it's only for one cold, grey afternoon where I can warm myself. From the inside looking out. From a place of reading and remembering, I'm slowing down.

Yep. The seasons are shifting. Right on time.