Here is the start of my second book with the working title: ON THOSE DARK DAYS Turn On Your Light. I wrote it in May 2017, though the story has been in my mind for a while, I didn't know how to write about the subjects: Sadness and Depression. They are terribly hard to write about. You don't want to bum people out so you have to word it in a way that can heal and end the story with a happy ending if possible.

That's what I have done with the start of my story. I've turned the intro into something that may sound like a child's book, so maybe that will be the direction I will go; A book for teens. That is when I felt the most sad in my life. It continued on and off into adulthood until I made some drastic life changes that included removing some people from my life. That was a very hard decision to make, but my health demanded it.

So, here we go with my story. Please excuse the grammar, as I haven't had anyone edit it yet. If you read until the end, you will find out why I released this tonight.

Let me tell you a story about a little girl. She was born into so much love. One day, her parents thought they fell out of love and decided to let go of each other.

The little girl pondered. "If they don't love each other anymore, does love even exist?"

Throughout this little girls life, she struggled with love. The idea. The concept. She tried and tried to be loved and love others, but it always felt like those around her pushed her away like her parents pushed each other away.

Life grew pretty dark for the little girl. Every time she loved, she lost. Every time she put her all into things, they seemed to slip away just like her parents relationship.

As the little girl grew up, she got to a really dark time. The darkness went away most of the time, but sometimes it lurked around for a while. Each time it lurked, the girl thought to herself "I don't think I'm supposed to be here anymore. I didn't ask to be born so why not give up? No one really loves me."

She pondered that dark thought a little too long once. The thought was so hard, the pain so intense, she cried and screamed out to the world "WHY AM I HERE!"

Little did she know, her cries were heard. There was always a little voice that said "You were put here for a reason." She just didn't listen until this moment. It took years of being sad and feeling unwanted and unloved, but this time she listened to the voice and understood.

The little girl had what are called "Dark Days". We all have Dark Days.

My question to you now is this: What can you do to bring yourself out of those dark moments in order to keep them from being dark days or even dark years?

And that is where I am with the story at this point. Thank you for reading!

I decided to release this start of my book tonight after having a dark moment recently due to all of the news stories about people shooting each other around the world. I decided I could let the new stories get me down or I could turn on my light and share how I cope with the dark moments now. I write. I journal. I listen to my favorite dance music. I take a walk. I meditate. I process my feelings through doing all these things. I allow myself to feel the sadness, but work through it with ways that I know work for me.

My wish for the world right now is for people to start figuring out how to process their dark moments more quickly so they don't head down a violent path. Knowing some of the things that exist in the world right now make me truly understand the saying "MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR."