'Writing for Survival' in my Empty Nest!

As you may have gathered from my previous blog, I live in my empty nest at the moment, with the realisation once again, I am not always the author of my own destiny.  Indeed it hasn't been easy to return to Ireland and find myself living just a few miles from the family home where I grew up, after finally at the age of 47 having had the courage to embark on a new life in France.  

My husband and I had survived his illness, resulting in early retirement at age 40, the same year in which our children flew the nest and after separating for a year, had made the life changing decision to put the past behind us and start all over again, with a new life in France.  We had three amazing years of an experience that surpassed our wildest dreams, as this beautiful country welcomed us with open arms and filled every day with so many adventures that the past was just a distant memory! 

It hasn't been easy therefore, to step back into the past again and finding a way to cope until we can move back to France, has been a process of trial and error for both of us.  All through my life writing has emerged at different stages, in the form of poetry or articles for local publications.  It has always been  something that would evolve almost like an extension of who I am and what I am feeling, after which I would feel released to carry on with my life; So when I started to write the story of our French adventure, I never dreamt I wouldn't be able to stop, that every day when I sat down at the computer, like entering the wardrobe and stepping into Narnia, I would be back in France reliving every moment.        

Eighteen months later to my surprise I have written a book and looking back the process has been my life line, as I realise I was in fact, 'writing for survival'.