Introducing: HELLS BELLS

I used to have a piece of paper on which a friend had typed, “it’s gonna be good.” It was a great piece of paper and it lived on my fridge until recently, which I only know because I can’t find it. While looking for that piece of paper, I found this:

If my memory serves me correctly, my sister made this for me when I returned home from the hospital. I suppose it was when I had spinal meningitis. I was two and spent a month at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston. I slept under a bubble. Everyone thought I was going to die. I did not die. I came home and received this note and a chocolate advent calendar. I ate all the chocolates out of order and my mother tucked this note away.

But maybe this note came from when I was returning from something else, years later. Either way, I know it was for me, like the chocolates, and like those words from a friend thirty years later, “it’s gonna be good.” (which I also believe is a note for you).

I am taping “it’s gonna be good” to the proverbial refrigerator that is this newsletter, the same refrigerator to which I am also taping, “Welcome Home Michele” because it’s my hope that committing to writing a monthly thing will tape a commitment to prioritizing writing on my forehead.

Thank you for reading. There will be more to come.