Dear Friends,

It’s hard to believe it’s August. The days seem to blur into each other despite working as usual and despite trying to make things feel as “normal” as possible. I am a planner in my work, and in my life, so it’s been a challenge to be in this environment and to not be able to plan or do things in the usual way.

People are saying to me that they feel like they are stuck in the mud a lot of the time with how slowly things are moving forward. They want to run like they used to, but now feel like they can’t even walk. In a stroke of good fortune and good timing,  I received an email from my favorite monks with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., that addressed these feelings perfectly that I wanted to pass along:

“If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl! But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”

What does that mean for us? In my personal life, I am celebrating a milestone birthday next month in September, and I had planned a special overseas trip with my family. Alas, the COVID-19 rules and risks in traveling have unravelled my plans, and the EU travel ban means that we literally can’t fly.  So I have to find small steps forward. I know that each step will bring me one step closer to where I want to be, which ultimately is together with family on my birthday.

It usually never seems to be the right time to attempt a “big” goal, whether it’s climbing a mountain, having a child, or achieving a fitness goal (or something I see all the time—people finally sitting down to create or review their estate plan!). But the reality is that any goal is just a series of small steps, and that thought has encouraged me to set my own next “big” goal to share with you, and that is to write another book, this one to help you learn how to best manage an inheritance, called An Inheritor’s Guide.

It will be the follow up my first book, A Widow’s Guide.

As always with anyone on my mailing list, if you could benefit from receiving a free copy of A Widows Guide or if you know someone who has recently been widowed, just email and we will send out a free copy of the book by mail, and mention that you were thinking of them.

So, this isn’t a letter to tell you what to do, or to say that I have things figured out. It’s only a short note to remind you to keep trying, keep taking small steps and to learn from them, so *you* can find your own way, and to let you know that I am doing the same.

It’s not a time to sit in the mud, but to keep moving, however small the steps!

Sincerely,

Anna

PS: All in all, I would like to think of 2020 as a “Phil Healy Comeback” kind of year.