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Gratitude. Warmth. Relief.
This is what I'm feeling now as we slide effortlessly—or perhaps at a reckless I'm-late-with-everything-and-that-was-MAAAAAH-parking-spot! speed—into the holidays of 2014.
I feel gratitude because on #GivingTuesday two weeks ago, on the heels of the special issue of The Muse I sent out, we went from 19% funded on our Tsunami book campaign to... wait for it... 103%. That's a steeper curve than climbing Mt. Everest! Decidedly warmer and fuzzier, too.
To all of our contributors and sponsors I say, YOU. GUYS. ROCK. Every single one of you, and you know who you are. Dan and I are proud and grateful to count you as friends and fellow travelers on this journey.
Details below on the #GivingTuesday deluge.
I feel warmth because that's what the holidays have always meant for me. In my family we celebrate Christmas, but whatever holiday you celebrate, this time of year is the time when we get together with our loved ones, share gifts, food, and each other's company.
We rest, eat all the delicious forbidden stuff we've been dieting from all year, watch movies, stay up late and sleep even later, and for those in the colder climates, go sledding, skiing, iceskating, perhaps even throw a few snowballs (Oops! Was that the neighbor's annoying cat that tears up the bonsai in my patio? Oh, dear. Bonsai karma gets the cat every time.)
I feel relief because the relentless pace of work for the past several weeks—scratch that—months—scratch that—YEAR, is now coming to a... slower pace. We authors can never rest. At least not those of us who really honestly seriously cannot breathe without writing.
But the relief really isn't about that. I love the work I do; it's a part of me, a way of life, not work. The relief is about having reached our goal on our very first crowdfunding campaign, and about being able, after ten years, to fulfill that dream and that promise we made to the people on the ground in India and Thailand Dan photographed.
Cannot wait to tell you about the partners and organizations we're talking to now.
All of these are wonderful reasons to celebrate this holiday season.
Happy Holidays. See you on the other side of 2014.
~ Birgitte
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December 2 was a gray, rainy day in California. A massive storm spun overhead after years of drought, drenching the land with much-needed rain, and I was driving through it, my daughter in the back seat on the way to school.
As grateful as I was for the rain, it was a tough drive: relentless pounding rain on the windshield and a relentless pounding headache. I was still reeling from having stayed up till 1am the night before, writing the #GivingTuesday issue of The Muse.
As I drove home, a wave of uncertainty suddenly hit me. All that effort, preparing the campaign. Shooting the video of Dan and me. Editing it for an entire week. All the emails. All the neuron-bending strategic thinking. All those late nights. What if no one... cares? There are a million other worthy campaigns and causes out there. Who are we to...
Back in my studio, I sat down to look at my Inbox.
"New contribution to Tsunami: Images of Resilience" from "Indiegogo Support." One after the other. A few were rather large.
I nearly fell over. Then I texted Dan.
The analogy wasn't lost on me, the metaphor of this great swell, this great wave of contributions I was watching come in even as the storm continued pounding outside, but out of respect for the Tsunami, the very event we were honoring, I didn't post it. Didn't say the obvious. Because these are sacred things. Water is the most essential, the most powerful natural force on the planet. It creates and it destroys. It moves mountains, literally. It gives life, it takes it away, and it gives life again. We are all part of this cycle, and we should respect and fully participate in it.
So we turned around and contributed to other campaigns. A community bookshop in New York. An illustrator in Barcelona working on a children's book. A portable anesthesia device for the rural children of Colombia.
Small stepping stones cradled in the arms of a major milestone. There is much more to come.
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I'd like to extend a very warm thank you to Porter Anderson and the team over at The Bookseller for publishing a Q&A with Dan Root, the photographer behind TSUNAMI: IMAGES OF RESILIENCE, and me.
Also, in the next few days, Dan and I are meeting up in the San Francisco Bay Area to sign the Tsunami books for everyone who's ordered a signed copy (as opposed to an unsigned copy). But we're only signing one hundred out of the one thousand copies we're printing, so if you'd like a signed and numbered book, hurry over to the Indiegogo campaign page before December 25th and get yours!
Extra special treat for those of you who've read down this far: if you're in the Bay Area and would like to have a coffee with Dan and me while we're signing the books, let us know and we'll send you the date/time/place.
If you're not anywhere close to here, no worries. We can record a short video of us signing your book and send it to you with the book. How's that for a virtual author signing??
Thank you for spending another vibrant year with me and The Muse. There is lots more to come in 2015: more projects, more ways to get involved with the books we're publishing, and especially more fun stuff I'm looking forward to sharing with you. Have a wondrous and bright holiday, wherever you are in the world.
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