May | 2016 | Toula Mavridou-Messer

You know that old Yiddish proverb, “We make plans, God laughs”? Well, I just had one of those moments of clarity that sums that up entirely.

In 2014, we created and published three books: one novel – Mortal End, one book of alliteration – Pocketful of Poesies and one coffee table book – 100% Simply Perfect Photographs.

We had every intention of following that up with Mortal End, Too (it’s a work in progress – much of which has been written or planned – there’s that word again!), more alliterative stories in Poesies 2 and a photographic book “100% Simply Portland.”

And yep, you’ve guessed it – none of those have been completed for various reasons – the biggest one being that life happened and God laughed.

I won’t go into the boring details but we had to move country, started jobs, spent spare time with Mum….and before we knew it time had truly flown.

The plans to create further books is always a priority.

Spare time is spent researching, plotting, chasing for various permissions, drafting but we were being too hard on ourselves – trying to do too much in too little time.

God was laughing at our plans.

Until now.

Or at least that’s what I hope.

God may now chuckle and we will chuckle too, but laugh? No.

This time we are just following our hearts. No plans.

The next book we ‘hope’ to bring to you will be the story and images of our extremely recent Wild West Road Trip. It’s something that is fresh in our hearts and minds, including jet-lag. It was so mind-blowing that whilst our minds are wide open and filled with inspiration, we will do all that we can to get those thoughts and recollections down on paper and published asap to share with you.

Fortunately, I have learned that when we live spontaneously and follow our hearts magic happens.

Yeehaw!