January 2010 Tidewater Women

“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” Tom Robbins
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January 2010
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In 1990 my husband Peter and I embarked
daughter died, I needed to face myriad
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on new careers as publishers and started
other questions about why sadness exists
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Tidewater Parent to provide lo-
in the world and, more importantly,
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how we are supposed to learn
Emergency, Pleasure or Relocation.
cal parents with information
designed to help them raise
and grow after experiencing
happy, healthy kids. The very
tragedy.
month the ﬁ rst issue debuted
My path piches through
our young daughter, Sierra,
thick forests, up and down
drowned in a swimming pool
hills, through rain showers
accident. As most of you
and droughts. Sometimes
know, I’ve been sharing the
I ﬁ nd myself in a golden
story of how Sierra’s death
meadow, jubilant, for a few
impacted my family in “Still
minutes anyway. Other times
Life with Sierra,” a memoir that
I’m in a dark cave, scared and
began over a year ago in TW and
alone. I think I’m making progress
will continue until the last installment in
somewhere….perhaps to a place where
August 2010, exactly twenty years after
I will feel OK about Sierra’s death, a place
Sierra died.
where I can be grateful I had her for the
I’ve received quite a lot of feedback
two and a half years she lived. I’m not
on this story, and many readers are hoping
there yet, but I’m making progress.
to see it in book form. Periodically I’ve
Perhaps this spiritual journey and
submitted the story to agents and pub-
my book about Sierra are intertwined
lishers, and some have expressed interest,
somehow and what I’m learning now will
including an agent who wrote in October
help me with the book’s next iteration.
after reading the manuscript: “This is an
It’s a work in progress, just like we are.
incredibly beautiful and powerful story…
As the new decade dawns, it’s the
I think [it] would touch and inspire a lot
perfect time to take stock of where you
of people.”
are in life. Look back at where you were
But this agent has challenged me to
ten, twenty years ago, and celebrate the
write more, to make the piece longer. She
blessings you’ve experienced. If times are
said, “I think we need more scenes, more
hard right now, remember to be patient
narrative.” She wants me to double the
and loving with yourself and help will
book’s length at least, and I’m not sure I
come. Believe in it.
can. It means going back into the story
and facing my demons again. Maybe I’m
Love, Peggy
afraid of what I might ﬁ nd.
I’m reading “Eat, Pray, Love” by Eliza-
P.S. I ﬁ nally got around to taking a yoga
beth Gilbert for the second time. It’s a
class in 2009. It was something that always
memoir about a woman who, after a nasty
appealed to me, but I never could quite ﬁ t
divorce, lived abroad for a year while tak-
it in. Now I absolutely love it: the gentle
ing stock of her life. The ﬁ rst time I read
stretching, the peaceful feeling, the mental
it, I devoured it hungrily, anticipating the
clarity it brings. Read this month’s article
happy ending I knew would come. Now
about yoga on p. 30 to ﬁ nd out more about
I’m rereading it more slowly and ﬁ nding
how yoga beneﬁ ts you. Then schedule a
her spiritual quest deeply fascinating.
class and see how it rocks your world. And
I began a similar spiritual quest soon
don’t forget to tell TW advertisers thanks
after my book about Sierra was ﬁ nished.
for advertising in your favorite women’s
It’s as if, in seeking to understand why my
magazine. Namaste.
Become a fan of
on
Simply search for Tidewater Women
4 JANUARY 2010
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