TOPAZ HORIZON

K.D.

Dear K.D.,

In my 39 years, I think I felt most confident at 13. I was positive I knew how life worked. I was going to be absolutely amazing. I just knew it! I had a life plan, a bucket list, and the brains and arrogance to go for everything I wanted. And I did get everything I wanted and more. I also got knocked down many times, so much so that if there's anything I'm sure of, it's that life has a strange sense of humor.

One day, you're the editor-in-chief of a magazine; the next day, you lose your job. One day, you tell people you're definitely not having children; the next day, the pregnancy test says otherwise. One day, you tell your mother you can't see her because you're working your ass off to give her money; the next day, she's dead. One day, you're smug about your marriage; the next day, you're wondering when was the last time you really talked. One day, you think you're pretty great at this motherhood thing; the next day, you're collapsing in defeat behind the locked bathroom door while your children bang on it with their little demanding fists.

So what do you do? Well, K.D., you have got to stop worrying!

Let me tell you a story. Nine years ago, I was about to get married. I planned my wedding in three months. I heard rumors that I must be pregnant (I wasn't) because who rushes weddings, right? I had the flu the week before my wedding. I arrived late at the church. The cake melted. An uncle started campaigning for his candidate. No one sat where they should sit and so our parents ended up having no seats! What a disaster! Despite all our meticulous planning, despite all the care we put into every detail, things still fell apart. And yet everything also fell into place. My wedding happened the way it had to happen. My wedding is still one of the best and happiest days of my life.

I believe that as long as you've got your priorities straight, things will fall into place. My priority list has always been God, husband, kids, work. Well, God gets forgotten sometimes. My husband, too. And when that happens, chaos happens. It's when I set my priorities straight, that's when things just start lining up and everything starts becoming amazing. Like my wedding. If I had focused on what people will think about me or the wedding (or the fact that my parents lost their seats!), I would be agonizing about what a failure the whole thing was. But I didn't. Priority: Honor God by marrying Vince; honor Vince by focusing on my commitment to him. Nothing else mattered!

So I don't know what's coming your way, K.D. But I do know you're in love and you have high hopes for the future. That's great! Positivity attracts lots of good stuff! Set your priorities straight. Prioritize your marriage. I think spouses should be physically together. Your husband is already acting on making that happen. No kids now so you can prioritize work, too. Money, don't worry about money. As long as you and your husband can work, you can make money. Me, I take in any work—sponsored posts, talks, PR writing, workshops, articles—anything that pays the bills and puts food on the table is good work. Plus, gigs expand your network and you'll be surprised at how much people want to help you as long as you open yourself up to new experiences and say you'll do the job.

Anyway, I guess what's eating you up is the uncertainty of what's ahead. Well, nothing in life is certain except death and taxes! But there's also these I'm certain of: God and love and just how beautiful life can be if you stop worrying. Nothing in life is certain anyway, and I've lived long enough to know that that can be a good thing. I was sure I didn't want children, for example. Thank goodness I was so wrong!

So just make your plans, prioritize what's important, live and love and laugh, and then when life throws you a curveball, reassess, reboot, start again. Things do fall into place. While you're in the thick of it, as you are now, things may just look crazy, but when you look back, things are happening just the way they should. Just ride it out and things will fall in place. They always do. You'll see. They always always do.  



Now email me so Alon can send you your dress and tanning set! Have a great weekend!

Thanks, Alon, for providing this month's prize. Shop Alon via website: www.alonisland.com, Facebook: www.facebook.com/alonisland; Instagram: http://instagram.com/alonisland; or through their roving pop-up stores.

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If you have a question for me, send an email to frances@topazhorizon.com with "Ask Frances" on the subject.

National Book Store invited me to what is possibly the most exciting thing for paper nerds everywhere: a stationery fair!

I won't bore you with stories of how I've had a lifelong love affair with stationery (I used to spell it as stationary until my Papa corrected me and said stationary means it's not moving while stationery is all the paper products I love), and how we girls at Assumption would swap beloved papers and pens, and how I had a special customized folder where I kept all my stationery and colored pens and I'd look through it every night, and how this one time a classmate stole my precious apple-scented apple-green eraser and hid it up her nose and she had to be brought to the clinic to get it out and so I didn't even want that eraser anymore and I didn't get mad at her at all because karma. 

Okay, so I just ran away with my stories again! I'll shut up now. But let me show you my current modest collection of stationery:

I like textures, bold colors, patterns, gold, embossed anything.

I also have a lot of personalized stationery.

Even money envelopes!

Can't wait to add to my collection this weekend at Happy Space! Here's what NBS sent me:

I am most definitely going to be there. See you on the weekend!