Fitzgerald’s term for the story dynamic he wrote about in The Great Gatsby was, “the dying fall.” *  Since this book was written from a similar life that Fitzgerald lived, we can basically talk about the book and the author in one breath, especially when referring to its bigger picture. Therefore, we can look for instances of Gatsby and Daisy’s dying fall and see something very similar in Fitzgerald and Zelda’s life. For example, Zelda spent the last 16 years of her life in mental institutions while Scott lived in Hollywood with his lover. Scott wrote, in a letter to her: But Zelda, what wouldn’t you give to go back to the beginning, to be those people again, the future so fresh and promising that it seems impossible not to get it right? ** Like Scott, Jay Gatsby exclaims, “Can’t repeat the past? … Why of course you can!” It has been a while since I read the book or saw a film version, so I am going to see the new film that is …

Where does your 24-7 go? Into the future? Become a part of your past? All I know is that it mostly seems to disappear and disappear way too quickly. I design a great plan for the week and then it’s Thursday and my plan looks like a train wreck! Priority one for Monday slippin’ into Tuesday, time with my sister on Tuesday slippin’ into Wednesday, scooping the kitty litter every day hop skip and jumping over into Friday, and so on. Time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin’ into the future. This first line of a Steve Miller Band song has haunted me ever since I read Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts. There are so many nuggets of wisdom in there, but I have been fascinated by Ann’s statement below: Giving thanks is ultimately an invitation to slow time down with the weight of full attention. Giving thanks and using gratitude journals has been a good idea since Oprah popularized it, and millions of you guys (including me) have started and stopped and started again …