Summer of Champions

Needs no caption! So awesome.

This week, those of us who live in Northeast Ohio are still reeling with ecstasy from the fact that the Cavs brought home the NBA championship. And brought home they did! Three times the population of Cleveland showed up downtown for the victory parade. My daughter got close enough to take this pic of LeBron. Pretty cool, huh?

When James first decided to return home from the Miami Heat, he said something that resonated greatly with all of us here in Northeast Ohio. As many of you know, we’re sometimes referred to as the “Rust Belt” or even more derogatorily, “The Mistake by the Lake.” Which made his words resonate even more. He said, “In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.”

I’ve thought of that often this week, as the Cavs came back from an underdog position to do the impossible–Records were meant to be broken, I heard LeBron say on TV this week. His words to me depict the underlying optimism, toughness, and resilience of the people of our region, i.e., we don’t give up easily–on anything!

My screened porch, where I love to sit and write. Piece of heaven!

So we are in high summer now, the days are warm and long and sunny–such a difference from our weather here the rest of the year, which is highly governed by cloud cover coming from Lake Erie. Every afternoon I walk outside my kitchen door and spend some time sitting in my backyard, staring at my grill cover :)–not the best view, but it’s a private place, with a line of trees between us and our neighbors, and very sunny, and I love it! And as I sit there in the sun, I think, wow, it’s sunny. It’s warm. I can’t believe it. This is awesome!

What I think I’m trying to say is, we Northeastern Ohioans don’t take anything for granted. NBA championships or summertime. We’re used to various degrees of suffering. That’s what makes the victory–and these gorgeous summer days–so sweet.

Summer, NBA championships, and life–they’re all fleeting. And so we have to embrace every minute of them! Hope you’re appreciating every minute of your summer!

***More summertime fun!:  my friend and fellow Montlake author Sandra Owens and I are planning a BIG giveaway you won’t want to miss and we’re announcing it this coming week–on Friday, July 1–on both our author Facebook pages, Sandy’s here and mine here. Watch our pages carefully in the weeks leading up to our joint release days, July 19, for fun and giveaways!***  

***Stop by the Harlequin Junkie blog on Monday as I do a guest post all about my recent Entangled release. I had a lot of fun with this post, stop by to say hi and join the giveaway!***