When You Realize “Perfect” Doesn’t Exist…

Bonjour friends! So, lately I’ve been having loads of ideas for topics I’d like to write about on this blog. Not the least of which includes stories about dating in France and all of the ridiculousness that entailed (in your wildest dreams, you cannot even imagine!); how and why I moved to the Land of Love and Croissants; why I’m not there now…and much, much more.

So why have I been so damn quiet for so long? Well, here’s what’s been happening: an idea flies in, and instead of running with it, I let it fly away. Every. Single. Time. This has been happening for a few years now. I mean, I was living in France for a year and a half, dating French men and stumbling on cobblestone streets and eating chocolate croissants nearly daily, and I had an IMMENSE amount of writing material flying into my world on the regular. Yet, I stayed quiet. Again, why?

Because I have been waiting for the perfect moment to launch myself back into writing, social media, and blogging. I just wanted it all to be PERFECT before I reconnected with readers in such a vulnerable way again.

What do I mean by perfect in regard to my writing career? Well, I’ve been working my little croissant ass off behind the scenes for a while now, completing some big projects: writing and releasing my super sexy thriller, All the Beautiful Bodies (a 3-4 year project that is still not completely finished on the release end); getting the rights back to all of my Paris books and republishing them under my own imprint (this includes reformatting all of the books so they are Kindle and print-ready, designing cover art, and much, much more behind the scenes work); giving my website a new do; writing a new thriller for my agent; writing the prequel and the sequel to All the Beautiful Bodies; writing the true story of what happened once I moved to France; and continuing to write books in my Paris series which I plan to self-publish (Charlotte, Chloe, and Jillian have so much more to do!!). It’s important to note here that I am mostly a one-woman-show in all of this–as many writers are–and an insane amount of work must happen to accomplish it all. Work that I love, but work nonetheless.

So, you see, I wanted to have most of these projects completely finished and polished and perfect before I really let my voice loose again online. But tonight, I had a nice realization–it’s something I already knew, something we all know, but it’s worth the reminder:

Nothing is perfect. Nothing will ever be perfect. There will never be the perfect time, the perfect life situation, the perfect relationship, the perfect career, the perfect you, the perfect me. Sure, life would be simpler if it was all perfect, all the time. Simpler, but boring as hell.

Sometimes, from deep within the mess of life, this is where we thrive, this is where we find our voice, this is where we find our strength. This is where we laugh, where we make fools of ourselves, and realize we’re all the same, deep down. We’re all connected, which means we all share the imperfect perfection of this life. And waiting for things to be perfect, as in totally flawless, will just never happen.

The perfect moment does exist, however, and that moment is NOW. This is what Charlie is telling you in his intense glare below. Do you feel it???

So, this is me and my cat Charlie, having a perfectly imperfect night with our Christmas lights still up in late January, which I plan to leave up all year because they’re cozy and they make me feel good. Stretching my writing muscles again makes me feel good, too, even if it’s just to share how scared I am to show my imperfections to all of you imperfect, wonderful people. Below, you’ll find a sneak peek of the new cover I’ve designed and the brand-new print edition of All the Beautiful Bodies–I’ll be announcing the official print release soon, but I couldn’t wait to share this sexy cover!

And so, I’m breaking the ice with this first post. There will be more to come on pressing topics such as: needing to buy bigger jeans because of excessive chocolate croissant and butter consumption, and because of an absolutely fabulous Brazilian roommate–we’ll call him Alberto–who made me the most decadent dinners and desserts nightly in our adorable Lyon apartment (yes, this man actually does exist, and I will never, ever share his true identity for fear that women everywhere will try to find him and lock him away in their kitchens forever!); what to do when you finally have a really good boyfriend and he wants kids, but at the ripe old age of (nearly) 38, you’re not sure if that ship has sailed…maybe it has, but perhaps it hasn’t…; and how a walk down the cobblestones one night in Vieux Lyon led, not to the love of my life as I thought it would (not at that moment anyway…), but instead to a surprising spiritual journey which ultimately led to the meditation I did tonight, which then led me to write this totally imperfect post. And voilà! We’re back…

Love to you all and à bientôt!

xxx Juliette