Knocked down seven times, get up eight.

Reading: Just Breathe – Susan Wiggs

Watching: Guinea Pigs jump

Making me smile: Rellies visiting from Sydney




You’ve read books where every word is pitch perfect. Where the characters are so real you feel as if they are speaking directly and only to you. When you reluctantly read the last page – that final sentence – the ending stays with you, a warm knowing feeling. There’s a lesson to take away and it found its way to your heart big time. Last night I began reading Susan Wiggs’ Just Breathe. In the first chapter we learn that the heroine has already been through the wringer: needing to leave her family and hometown, discovering problems with infertility, suffering knockbacks with her job, helping her partner triumph over cancer. This woman is strong, courageous, intelligent, caring, loyal. She faces her challenges head on and conquers them. Nothing can keep her down.

Then her world falls apart.

Writers know we shouldn’t be kind to our characters. What’s a good story, after all, without problems to solve? Without people we aspire to emulate when times get tough? And those kinds of heroes aren’t limited to fiction. When I’m navigating a particularly rough patch, I have looked to persons – real or not – from whom I can draw strength. I have asked myself: What would he/she do? How would they find the grit?

Do you draw from people you admire for guidance, attitude, tenacity when the road ahead looks bleak? Are they real life persons, like role model celebrities, your parents, even children? Have you ever faced a personal trial and wondered how Such-and-Such from That Fabulous Book would handle it?


Two things are for sure. The human spirit is an amazing source of inspiration.

And I can’t wait to see how this Wiggs book ends!