It’s an unfortunate side effect of growing older. Things used to be so exciting, but then it hits you: it hasn’t been your day, your month, or even your year. (BTW, if this sentence put a certain TV theme song in your head, it’s time to schedule you colonoscopy.)

They say when it rains, it pours. I just didn’t expect the rain to be in my basement.

To quote the well-known book about little Alexander, it has been a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad” week. 

Ready or not, here it is: I am launching my own business: Daylight Creative, LLC.

Through Daylight Creative, I aim to provide communication strategies, training and creative solutions to help people and organizations convey their stories with clarity, authenticity, warmth and light.

I’ve experienced a lot of loss over the past 12 months, but I’ve gained so much more.

The decision I made is not the right one for everyone, but it was the right decision for me.  I have zero regrets and a million reasons to be grateful.

You'd think after my public confession last year, I would have turned away from my life of crime. But here we are...

Last week, we hosted our annual conference at the Tinley Park Convention Center. It's always fun, but it's also a very long and exhausting week. Many of our staff, including me, stay in a hotel in Tinley to avoid the commute because of the late nights and early mornings.

I wear it to keep warm, hide my arms, and sometimes to dress up an otherwise casual tank top or sleeveless dress for work or special events. It flexes with my fitness level, and at every weight, I’ve found it to be quite slimming. Like I said, magical.

One of my fashion-forward coworkers even complimented me once on the button details on the sleeves. Well, that sealed the deal. This would be a sweater I’d cherish forever. And I have. There are students in the youth group younger than my cardigan.

In 1986, Janet Jackson released one of her catchiest tunes of the decade. The amazingly easy-to-memorize chorus—don’t look it up or it’ll get stuck in your head—asks a question that could just as well summarize the entirety of the Old Testament.

“Oo-oo-ooh yeah, what have you done for me lately?”

In fact, the Bible tells story after story about a VERY forgetful group of people.

There was nothing peculiar or particularly amazing about the picture itself. Emma sends me these kind of photo updates regularly, and this one, as images go, was a little on the dark and blurry side.

But it was a happy, candid image, capturing a beautiful moment in time—a moment of love, joy and contentment. And it reminded me of a similar image I had seen several times before.

We arrived at the center, and I psyched myself up for what was sure to be a difficult goodbye. I could already anticipate the guilt I’d feel as she’d tearfully beg me to stay. But we walked in anyway. The greeter efficiently welcomed me, and then she ushered us to Emma’s new home away from home.

That’s when it all fell apart.

I thought about gathering all of the girls tonight and giving them a mom talk of confidence. But a) I'm not sure we'll have the time backstage, and b) I'm pretty sure half of them already think I'm a crazy old lady. So, instead, I write this public letter to the girls of Matilda and anyone else who needs a reminder.