Hat Firmly On!

Dear readers,

When I was in Kindergarten we put on a play, The Four and Twenty Blackbirds. As I recall it was my first opportunity to wear a hat. Said hat had a long yellow bill and an attached sweeping black cape with fluttery edges. I think I was blackbird number 13. At any rate my fellow birds and I were all baked in this pie (I’m sure you remember the story, but if you don’t, ask your grandma!) . . . and when the pie was opened the birds began to sing.

This experience is etched into my consciousness to this day. I adored the king counting out his money, the maid hanging up the clothes, and of course the queen eating milk and honey. And I didn’t mind at all being a supernumerary in the big luscious pie. It was heaven. At the appointed time I leaped out with all the other black-hatted screechers to charm the socks off the king and his court and our collected doting parents.

Without a doubt that sweet pie leaping moment has forged an unbroken chain of events leading to this very night. A night as full of anticipation for me as when I huddled inside that butcher paper and chicken wire stage prop waiting to flap my wings and crow. Hats there are a plenty still, songs too, and endless opportunities to leap up and dance, to taste the blackberries of a newly unfurling life.

Wearing my favorite hat I sit this evening on the verge of another impossibly theatrical undertaking, one where I become that person I always wanted to be. I can just see her now, that mystery lady, about to step out of the wings.

In just one week my first children’s book and its sister will be rumbling along in a truck to various booksellers, capping off a parade that started at my little gingerbread house two years ago. I am in awe, amazed and moved by how it has come to be. By all the people who appeared almost out of nowhere to be part of it, by how much fun it has been, by how much work it has required, and by all those things I discovered about myself along the way.

It is yet to be seen how this offering of stories will be received, who they will touch, how they will serve. But the long time dream to be of some help to others has taken this form and now it must be released to find its way in the world. And I will follow, my hat in place, not in my hand.

To all who wish for a life of wonder, to those who yearn to break away if only for a hour, to you who long for a day made fresh by that one transforming moment I say, “Join me, hats on, let this be your day!

Read On!
Amanda Lorenzo