For the Love Of...

As you may remember, I have a cat named Comma. I’ve featured Comma many times in my musings here. One of my favorite postings was For the Love of Comma,  exploring how punctuation influences a reader’s reception of your story.

This week, I lost Comma.

While reeling with this unexpected loss, I am also – now more than ever – keenly aware how fast time flies. And what matters most are the connections, the friendships and the relationships made along the way. And one of the most important for me is my connection with the Teaching Authors.

Teaching Authors celebrates our ninth anniversary. Over nine years, nine fabulous writers who teach have discussed the writer’s life, the art of teaching and the importance of literary citizenship. Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford. JoAnn Early Mackin. Carmela Martino. Mary Ann Rodman. April Halprin Wayland. Jill Esbaum. Laurie Purdie Salas. Carla McKillough Clafferty. Esther Hershenhorn.

A constant and important theme throughout these many years has been exploring strategies to help build a community of readers, for future’s sake. We have explored best books, and rousing poetry, inspirational characters, and o! the places we’ll go! We’ve featured literary heroes and celebrated our students. We exposed the shadows on the wall, and looked at monsters in the closet.

It has been a rip-roaring adventure. Now more than ever, I remain humbled and grateful that Carmela and my fellow TAs thought I might have something worthwhile to say.

And that’s worth celebrating!

I think Esther said it best with her Celebratory Nonaversary THANKU, and if I may, I repeat it here, for the love of "my TA kin – all nine of them!"

                       Nine TeachingAuthors,
                   beacons each, heart-builders all,
                   en-courage-ing me.

And Thank YOU, dear readers,  for reading my oftimes silly, rambling but always heartfelt posts through the years.

Bobbi Miller