Melissa Gilbert, BACK TO THE PRAIRIE: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered

2022-05-10  ·  28:48  ·  Melissa Gilbert  ·  Podcast Audio

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[0:01]Hi, this is Vivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast.
[0:05]Moms don't have time to read books, and speaking of books, I have two of my own books
[0:10]coming out this spring and summer.
[0:12]Princess Charming is a picture book, which debuts on April 19th, and bookends.
[0:17]A memoir of love, loss, and literature comes out on July 1st, and it is truly a labor of love.
[0:24]I hope you'll pre-order, order, and join me on tour as I go across the country.
[0:28]You can find out more at ziviowens.com or bookendsmemoir.com, and you can follow me on Instagram
[0:35]at ziviowens, because I always post about everything.
[0:38]Enjoy the show!
[0:41]Melissa Gilbert is the author of Back to the Prairie, a home-remade a life rediscovered.
[0:47]Melissa starred as Laura Ingalls on the hit television show Little House on the Prairie,
[0:51]which by the way, I must have seen every single episode of the show growing up.
[0:55]I never missed one, I would bathe during commercials, this was my childhood favorite.
[1:01]She has starred in numerous movies and served two terms as President of the Screen Actors
[1:05]Guild.
[1:06]She is the author of Prairie Tale, Daisy and Josephine, and my prairie cookbook.
[1:10]She resides in the Cats Guilds in New York City with her husband, Timothy Busfield, back
[1:13]to the prairie, it's her latest book.
[1:16]Welcome, Melissa.
[1:17]Thank you so much for coming on Moms.
[1:18]Don't have time to read books to discuss.
[1:20]Thank you.
[1:21]Back to the prairie, so exciting, home-remade a life rediscovered.
[1:26]It was so great.
[1:27]It was so great to get inside your head and hear your whole story.
[1:32]Really, it was amazing.
[1:33]It was told in such an approachable conversational way that I just felt like I was chatting
[1:38]with a friend or something like that.
[1:39]I don't know if that was your attention, but it was very successful.
[1:44]Good, I'm so glad, it's interesting because this is sort of the beginning of promoting
[1:50]it for me.
[1:51]I haven't really talked to a lot of people who've read it who are not relatives.
[1:55]Yes, I'm really enjoying hearing how people are reacting to it, and I love hearing your
[2:01]reaction to it.
[2:02]I love that you felt like you were talking with a friend because that was sort of the
[2:07]whole idea was to give us all that feeling of community in that, that sort of way I wrote
[2:14]it, so we didn't all feel like we were so incredibly alone even though we thought we
[2:18]really were.
[2:19]We weren't.
[2:20]We aren't.
[2:21]True.
[2:22]Thank you for that.
[2:24]It was so funny too, as I was reading.
[2:27]I'm on my second marriage and I was hearing all about your marriages and all of that, and
[2:31]I was relating to this and that.
[2:32]I was like, I have the same herniated disc.
[2:35]No problem.
[2:36]No problem.
[2:37]You know, for that reason, I had a lot more stuff, but yeah, anyway, preaching to the
[2:43]choir here.
[2:44]Yes, to be honest, your health stuff and all of your pain that your body has gone through,
[2:49]I was really taking it back.
[2:52]I mean, that is a lot to have to deal with.
[2:54]Maybe you could talk just a little bit about even like falling on the stage and you're
[2:58]I mean, all the stuff, it's so much.
[3:03]It is a lot.
[3:04]It is a lot.
[3:05]And it's like a running joke in my family and with my friends that, you know, most people
[3:09]get a splinter or they get a cold.
[3:11]I don't.
[3:12]I get something massive or I get pneumonia.
[3:16]I'm I did not get I'm knocking wood right now did not get COVID yet.
[3:20]I haven't yet to have it.
[3:22]But I definitely like have weird accidents and strange injuries that turn into something
[3:29]really massive.
[3:30]And my spine has been a real problem.
[3:32]I've injured my originally my cease by my neck so many times and I've had to deal with
[3:39]herniated discs and then ultimately surgery and then a surgery that failed as you, you
[3:45]know, you read in my book and then the surgery during COVID where I had to fly across
[3:48]country to get it all repaired.
[3:51]And then I broke my back to doing the musical version of the little house on the parade,
[3:55]which I write about.
[3:56]And I sort of feel like dealing with chronic pain, which I don't anymore.
[4:00]I don't have any pain at the moment and I haven't for since November of 2020.
[4:06]Dealing with chronic pain has just been a part of my existence and for a very long time
[4:11]and who I am and I think well there's a couple things that are good about that is I definitely
[4:15]have an empathy and sympathy for people who are in any kind of pain, especially chronic
[4:20]pain and a real understanding of and this ties into what happened with my father, which
[4:25]I wrote about.
[4:26]My father was in chronic pain and no one was helping him and he kept saying I wish I were
[4:31]dead.
[4:32]I wish I were dead and nobody did anything and he chose to end his own life.
[4:37]I have chosen repeatedly now throughout the course of my life to get through the pain and
[4:43]live either live with the pain or get through the pain and fix it somehow.
[4:47]And I've been lucky enough to have had a number of physicians, physical therapists, surgeons
[4:54]and nurses in my life who have helped me to achieve that.
[4:58]So right now, like today before I saw you, I was running on a treadmill, which is considering
[5:05]all the bits and parts and surgeries and stuff and all the spine stuff is kind of
[5:10]phenomenal.
[5:12]And I did it with ease and comfort and I am finally in a place where my body is starting
[5:20]to betray me a little because it's getting harder to get moving.
[5:24]She's not so young no more, but I feel really healthy and strong at the same time.
[5:36]So, you know, whereas people really start to begin, I think at my age, which is almost 58
[5:42]years old, I think people really start to feel the aches and pains of aging.
[5:45]I'm actually in a place where I'm not feeling a lot of pain because I had all the pain
[5:49]before.
[5:50]So this is kind of like my lovely salad days.
[5:53]I'm really enjoying my life and I like to go to the gym and get on the treadmill and I like
[5:58]to dance around the living room and I like to do yoga and I can do these things and not
[6:03]have it be burdensome or painful, which is great.
[6:06]Next thing you know, you'll be skydiving.
[6:08]I mean, who knows what's coming next?
[6:09]No, you know what?
[6:10]I have reached a conclusion about that.
[6:12]I have skydiving relatives and I just decided that there's no reason for me to do that
[6:17]this way.
[6:18]There really is no reason.
[6:20]I'm not a fan of heights so and I'm also not a fan of flying.
[6:25]And so those are like the two, I don't understand why anyone would willingly jump out
[6:30]out of a plane.
[6:31]I just, it doesn't make any sense to me.
[6:33]So there's no reason.
[6:35]Yeah.
[6:36]No reason.
[6:37]I'm in the same boat.
[6:38]Well, the versus plane, I guess, but yes, I am the same thing.
[6:40]I do not try to rather be in a boat in a plane.
[6:43]Me too.
[6:44]Me too.
[6:45]I might do a zip line, but I don't think I will have her bungee jump or no, I want to
[6:49]rethink.
[6:50]I know I'm never going bungee jumping and I'm never jumping out of a plane.
[6:53]There's just no reason for it.
[6:54]There are all these things and I was younger and I was like, you never know.
[6:56]I might go here.
[6:57]I might go on this trip.
[6:58]Do this.
[6:59]And now I'm like, I'm actually not going to do that.
[7:02]Yeah.
[7:03]I think I'm just going to play it safe and live longer.
[7:08]Yeah.
[7:09]That sounds good.
[7:10]Well, you also address a lot in the book.
[7:12]Your relationship with your body aging and beauty and skin care and what you have decided,
[7:20]which is to stop with all the stuff that your LA life required or that you felt it required
[7:27]with the fillers and the this and the that and trying to mask what was actually going on,
[7:31]which is normal aging and that you it part of what you've adopted in this new,
[7:36]sort of phase of life with your wonderful husband and your love affair, which is so nice
[7:40]to read about, is just being your total authentic self and not filling anything except
[7:46]for your soul, I would say.
[7:48]That's 100% right.
[7:50]That's 100% right.
[7:51]And I love that you put it that way.
[7:52]That's genius that I really have consciously decided at this point in my life, I'm going
[7:58]to fill my soul and not my cheeks.
[8:01]You can steal it.
[8:02]Go ahead.
[8:03]It's fine.
[8:04]I just love that.
[8:05]And it's true.
[8:06]I don't, you know, I'm, this is the latter third of my life.
[8:11]And I don't have time for a lot of things.
[8:13]And one of the things I don't have time for nor the desire to do is keep trying to fight
[8:18]the inevitable.
[8:19]I don't want to fight.
[8:21]Um, generally, I mean, I will fight for things that I really believe in, but I don't,
[8:25]I don't want to fight something that's so organic and natural as aging.
[8:29]It just seems like a, a no win, first of all, because it's going to happen.
[8:34]And, um, I don't have the time to devote to going constantly to the dermatologist and
[8:41]worrying about.
[8:42]I mean, I don't.
[8:43]I just, I have no desire to be that person anymore.
[8:45]I would much rather spend my time surrounded by people that I love whom I love who I want
[8:53]to be around.
[8:54]I don't even have time for what my sister calls tiny talk.
[8:56]I don't even have time like for a hovering cocktail party talk.
[8:59]I just, I, I, if we're not going to get into a deep conversation about meaningful things
[9:06]or just laugh our heads off, then I don't, I'm, I just, I don't have time for getting
[9:11]to know you stuff anymore.
[9:13]That's a really, you should host a podcast momstone no time to get to know other people
[9:19]or something.
[9:20]Momstone don't have time to get to know anybody, even themselves, really, I, I, you know,
[9:25]I spent so much of my life when my kids were home, just, you know, to the grindstone,
[9:30]just getting up every day and going through, whether I was working or not working, just
[9:34]the constant dealing with someone else's life and working on their schedules and my schedules
[9:41]and getting people to activities and making sure people had food and went to their dentist
[9:46]appointments and the orthodontist appointments and doing their homework and all of that stuff
[9:49]that I feel like now, um, selfishly to this is a little bit my time now and I, I didn't
[9:56]even have that before I had kids because I was working so.
[10:00]Now I'm, I'm, I'm very choosy about what I do with my time and your grandmother which is so exciting and congratulations.
[10:09]I will tell you now that it is 100% the primary reason to have children.
[10:15]I, uh, Tim and I with our grandkids and we've got another one coming imminently and even a little girl here in New York too.
[10:25]So yeah, you finally have one nearby, um, but we have been grandparents now a few times over and we've had the grandkids and we don't have kids together.
[10:38]So we didn't get to do all of that together, but now we get to do the absolutely best part of it where we get to have these little people in our lives and feed them and hold them and change them and love them and then give them back and go to sleep at the end of the day.
[10:53]And not worry about it. And also, you know, we've been through stitches and heartbreaks and bullying and I mean, all the things you can go through with kids and then the teenage stuff car accidents and arrests and I mean, you can't even imagine.
[11:10]That's why my hair is gray. And, um, I just we're so relaxed now there's nothing that phases us. I mean, we had never changed diapers before we were with baby Ripley my son Dakota and his wife Marissa daughter in Texas last summer.
[11:26]I've done that yet. And it was seamless. Just here you hold this here you hold that here I got it, you know, and then we were we had them staying with us overnight and to we let my daughter in law sleep.
[11:38]So Tim and I took the night shift. So I was up from 1 a.m. to 4 and he was up from 4 to 7 and then they left and we just, you know, we weren't a coma.
[11:48]And it was easy and I wasn't, you know, it's nervous, you know, you're not as I'm not as nervous with my grandchildren as I was with my children.
[11:56]Yeah, you know, so she doesn't go down in two hours.
[12:00]Yeah, so I have four kids. I feel like that's how I am with my fourth. My fourth kid. I was like, right.
[12:08]I had a friend in New York when I first lived here in the 80s when my first son was born with Dakota was born who had three kids. She was my neighbor.
[12:17]And she said the first child is an experiment. The second child is to keep the first child busy and the third one is all yours now. I don't know if she went any further than that.
[12:28]But then the fourth is just becomes like, I don't know, it's like a puppy. Yeah.
[12:33]Actually, as you were talking, my, my husband, we don't have children together either, but we do have a dog and sometimes it's like, who's going to take it out and every so often I'm like, this could be, there could be a lot of friction here.
[12:46]Right. Like we could be fighting about this, but like there's no friction at all. How nice is that.
[12:51]There's no counting who did this when it's just like, oh, you're going to take her. I'm going to take her. I don't know.
[12:56]We just did the same. We have a puppy. We have a, we've had a puppy for a month now and Tim's going home to let her out of her crate and give her her lunch.
[13:04]But it's just what we do. We just trade off. We don't even, there's not even a discussion. You got it. I got it. Okay. Great.
[13:11]Yeah. I think anyone who's been in more complicated relationships can appreciate the simplicity of a, of a hand up like so.
[13:19]Nothing better than simplicity to it really is highly underrated.
[13:26]Yes. By the way, speaking of simplicity and like buying this house that you got in the woods and stripping it down and the little mice in the bed and like all this stuff.
[13:36]Like this is like literally getting back to basics. And it's so crazy too because as a child, I'm sure you hear this all the time. So I won't go into it.
[13:43]But you know, I used to watch the last of the very, and so it's just so perfect that now I'm meeting with you and you like literally have recreated this fictitious world by going back onto the land again and like,
[13:54]stripping everything down to basics. Tell me though about your like the demo and the construction. I mean, I could not believe you were doing all this stuff yourself. I was like, where is the reality show on this. This is what I want to watch.
[14:08]I think it's coming. I actually really keep our fingers crossed. There's some conversations. Good. Good. But don't expect any Martha Stewartness out of this is I am the imperfect.
[14:21]Contractor slash crafter slash chef. Everything I may create do is great, but flawed. So it'll never be.
[14:32]I have I there's nowhere. I'm going to teach anybody to do this, but we we had moved to New York. And we were living in the city. And then we knew we needed to have some space.
[14:45]And we both love the Catskills. We've both been up here. So we started exploring and we found this little hunting cabin.
[14:52]It was like, as I write in the book. It was the price was 100% right. We knew we were going to put some money into it. And we did that hiring people and bringing in, you know, but on a budget.
[15:05]It was going to be the place where if we ever did have chickens, maybe someday it could be there. Or if we ever did really plan to garden someday it could be there.
[15:14]And we talked about it all the time. And then February, no March 13th was Friday the 13 2020. We came up here to escape. And it just kept going on and on and on and on.
[15:28]And then, you know, like everybody else we're hearing people are freaking out about toilet paper and they're freaking out about paper towels and they're talking about the food supply chains and, you know, the, the factories.
[15:40]The plants people are getting sick and they're shutting down and what are we going to eat. And we finally said, you know what if we're going to have a garden and chickens now is the time.
[15:49]It made perfect sense.
[15:51]And now it's like, you know, it's second nature to us. I was up this morning with the chickens. And yesterday I did the big spring cleaning in the coop and I mean, I have gone back to the prairie, but I do vacuum the coop with a shop back.
[16:07]So it's not, I mean, I scoop as much as I can, but then I get in and with shop back in the spring just to give it a really good clean.
[16:15]So I don't think they had that back in the 1800s, but it is very much.
[16:21]It feels very much like how I grew up on the set, not in my own life. Right.
[16:27]But it, you know, there were chickens and horses and cows out there and it was dusty and dirty and there were chores that needed to be done and I really wanted to learn how to do all of those things and that's why I loved being on that set so much.
[16:40]So it's very much the same thing now at home. I just, you know, I build my own fire. I don't have a special effects guy to do a for me, which is probably good because he was missing fingers.
[16:50]Oh, gosh, let's know what you want to see is special effects.
[16:54]Luke Tillman, and I love him dearly, but yes, he was missing fingers.
[16:59]Oh, my gosh. I feel like it's also interesting as you get older, like what actually feels like home.
[17:05]Right. Like what maybe it's not where you actually live. Maybe it is where you worked.
[17:10]There are different places and sentiments and things that you, you feel more comfortable in. I don't know. I think it's interesting.
[17:17]Yeah, it is interesting.
[17:18]And another thing that I loved too that I don't think a lot of people talk about or I certainly haven't read enough about is what the realities are even financially of the entertainment business and how they're all these assumptions that like everything is fine.
[17:33]And you'll just like never have to think about money again the rest of your life because of XYZ for both you and your husband.
[17:38]And you really go into it and explain what it's like and how, you know, what's happened and how a divorce can change your setup with, you know, I found that fascinating to read about and just so important so that other people.
[17:52]Other readers can just see what it's really like and not not assume anything just because I think the assumption is that, you know, we all know each other.
[18:02]Everybody in the entertainment industry who has any recognition knows each other. They all hang out together and they all make the same amount of money.
[18:09]Some people are a little more famous than others. Some people do movie, some people do television.
[18:13]But that's why, you know, everybody, so many people with athletes and people go, no, I'm acting now. I'm going to be an actor now.
[18:21]You know, you can't just be an actor and it's not only is it a craft, but it's a business and the majority of the people in our business across the board in all categories are gig workers.
[18:33]We make money when we're working and unless we're working on a long term show like little house in the prairie was which I have not done since little house in the prairie.
[18:41]It's almost 50 years ago. I worked out a series for nine years, almost 50 years ago. I've gone from job to job to job to job.
[18:49]And there are times where the jobs come fast and furious. I'll do, you know, there was in the 90s. I would do five movies of the week in a year.
[18:55]And that was great and things were cushy and my husband at the time was on a television series. So everything was good and we had a big house and, you know, we took vacations.
[19:05]The jobs have gotten further and fewer and further in between for a woman of a certain age.
[19:15]My husband works constantly, but he's got an ex wife. He's got debts. He's got bills. He's got kids. He's still paying off student loans.
[19:24]And salary compressions are real things. So we, I mean, we're comfortable or safe. We own our house up here.
[19:32]And we've managed. But the reality is we have to watch our budget like normal people do. And, you know, as I said in the book, I got in some trouble several years ago right at the same time that I got divorced from my second husband from Bruce at that same time.
[19:51]So the, we sold a house that we, it just the bubble had burst and we didn't, we sold two houses and we were.
[20:00]because it was like getting in debt and getting in debt
[20:02]and I ended up having to work with the IRS
[20:08]because I had back taxes, a huge amount of back taxes.
[20:11]So I had to work with them to figure out a payment plan.
[20:13]So now that's, you know, the money comes in,
[20:16]but it goes to the IRS first.
[20:18]And it's manageable, but I can't tell you
[20:20]the last time we went on an actual vacation,
[20:23]which is, it's fine though, we're comfortable,
[20:25]we're safe, we're healthy, we have medical insurance,
[20:29]I can't, well, we get in the car, we do a lot of driving.
[20:32]We drive to Texas to see the kids,
[20:34]we drive to California to see the kids.
[20:37]And I'm completely happy.
[20:38]I don't need a lot of fancy stuff and fancy meals
[20:43]and all of that.
[20:44]I'm really happy with my life.
[20:46]I'm most happy in my bark-a-lounger with my knitting.
[20:51]I love that.
[20:54]Who knew?
[20:55]You know, all these, it goes back to what you were saying
[20:57]before, it's like fighting, why,
[21:00]like where are we gonna direct our energy?
[21:02]What is it for?
[21:03]Like what is, what do we need out of the energy for?
[21:05]Can we just be happy with what we have?
[21:07]Maybe we need a lot less than we think we do.
[21:09]I think we learn how little we really need
[21:11]when we were all scrambling for toilet paper.
[21:14]Yeah, yes, well said.
[21:17]Yeah.
[21:18]What was it like writing the book?
[21:21]It was an absolute joy.
[21:22]It's just sort of, this one sort of poured out,
[21:25]mostly because it's really focused,
[21:27]primarily in the last two years,
[21:28]so the memories were pretty clear,
[21:30]although a lot of the dates ran together
[21:33]as I was looking back because COVID, no one knew what day it was.
[21:37]I just knew which pajamas I had been in and for how long.
[21:40]I think I've been wearing this for two weeks.
[21:41]I think it's time to change.
[21:46]It was very fresh, but it was also very joyful experience
[21:51]because I've come from a place now of here we are.
[21:56]We, those of us who, and my heart obviously goes out
[22:00]to the hundreds and thousands of people
[22:02]who lost loved ones and children who lost parents
[22:07]and all of the people who died in the end,
[22:09]of course, to the healthcare workers
[22:10]and the first responders who have done such an incredible job
[22:13]and continue to, but essentially, as of now,
[22:18]we made it through that.
[22:20]And there are reasons we did that.
[22:23]We made it through because we really do it
[22:26]our core care about each other.
[22:28]We really do it our core believe in community.
[22:30]We really missed one another.
[22:33]Did we come out of it being kind or not necessarily?
[22:37]The political climate, I think,
[22:42]enabled us to become even a little more siloed and vicious.
[22:46]So I think we're still learning how to be nice to each other.
[22:48]Now that we're back looking at each other's faces again,
[22:51]for now, but we did make it through.
[22:53]And just like our forefathers and mothers
[22:57]made it through plagues and not having electricity
[23:03]and all of the hardships they endured settling this country
[23:07]and others and back and back and back and back.
[23:12]So I think it proves how resilient we are.
[23:16]So to me, that's a joyful thing.
[23:21]Totally.
[23:23]Do you want to write more?
[23:24]I guess this is, do you want me to be going?
[23:26]Yeah.
[23:27]Yeah, I have other things to write that are not autobiographical.
[23:30]For sure.
[23:31]I mean, this is my fourth book.
[23:32]So I've written in children's book
[23:33]and I wrote the cookbook and my first,
[23:35]my first autobiography, which I don't like.
[23:40]I really don't.
[23:41]I was in such a weird, bad place when I wrote that book.
[23:44]And I didn't know the truth about my father's passing.
[23:46]So it felt disingenuous when I found out
[23:49]I was like, I thought, mwah, that book.
[23:52]It's just based on a lie.
[23:54]That was not my lie.
[23:55]But and it was very much too much of a kiss and telly look.
[24:01]I don't like that book.
[24:02]But I have other books.
[24:03]I have an idea for a novel that I've been working on kind of.
[24:06]So we'll see.
[24:07]I don't know.
[24:08]We never know.
[24:09]There's so much to do.
[24:12]We'll see.
[24:14]So what about reading?
[24:15]Are you reading anything good now?
[24:17]I am up right now.
[24:18]I'm into Mary Roch's books.
[24:21]I don't know if you've ever read her.
[24:23]I just finished stiff.
[24:24]So now I'm reading bunk.
[24:27]And I have golf.
[24:28]And I have grunt.
[24:30]And I have golf, and I have spirit on deck.
[24:34]So awesome.
[24:37]I'm really enjoying bunk.
[24:39]It's a very interesting look at the people who studied
[24:43]in the study of human sexuality.
[24:46]Very interesting.
[24:47]And stiff was fascinating and funny.
[24:49]She's very, very funny.
[24:51]So I'm reading nonfiction at the moment.
[24:55]Very cool.
[24:55]OK, I'll have to check it out.
[24:57]OK, last question.
[24:58]Do you have any advice to aspiring artists of any kind?
[25:01]I was going to say authors because in this capacity
[25:04]or an author, but really in any capacity,
[25:07]people who feel like giving up or they're never
[25:09]going to make it or, you know, it's just the weighing on them
[25:12]or the rejection or any of it.
[25:13]What inspiring words can you share?
[25:16]I would say that the most important thing really,
[25:22]and it's hard to do, is to create your art for yourself
[25:32]and do the best you can to have it not matter what other people
[25:36]think, which is really hard to do, especially when you put it
[25:39]out there like this book.
[25:40]It's the books for me more than film or television
[25:45]or any projects I do at home.
[25:49]Feel like they feel like sending my babies out into the world
[25:54]because they come from such an intimate place, especially
[25:56]the autobiographical ones.
[25:59]So it's very hard for me.
[26:01]I don't want people to bully them and be mean to them.
[26:03]I'm perfectly prepared for people to not like it.
[26:05]There's some political stuff.
[26:06]I think people will object to in this book, which is fine.
[26:12]We all don't all have to agree.
[26:16]But I think it's really important for artists
[26:20]to just compete with themselves to try and be better
[26:26]than they were the time before, to try and perfect their art
[26:30]and get better at it or to deepen it or to explore it more.
[26:34]But really, the goal is to detach from what other people think.
[26:39]That's hard, but it's really important to do
[26:41]because art is really very personal.
[26:47]And if you're just doing it for yourself,
[26:50]I think you stay a lot healthier than being crazy worrying
[26:53]about what other people think.
[26:56]I feel like that's through line in the message of your whole book,
[26:59]really.
[27:01]Yeah, well, and you can't please everybody.
[27:03]You really can't.
[27:04]And there's no reason to try.
[27:06]I tried for a really long time.
[27:09]If you look up people, please are in the dictionary.
[27:11]There's a picture of nine-year-old Maine.
[27:15]I did everything everyone asks me to do.
[27:18]I sacrificed my own well-being for decades and decades
[27:21]and decades.
[27:22]And it got me nowhere, ultimately.
[27:26]It got well, it got me into the therapy is what it did.
[27:28]So there you go.
[27:35]Well, this has been so amazing.
[27:36]And I'm not even kidding.
[27:37]If you have any interest, I have this whole podcast network
[27:39]where I'm launching all these new shows.
[27:40]So I feel like you would be so great at doing a podcast.
[27:44]If you have any interest, anyway, we can talk.
[27:47]Thank you.
[27:47]I appreciate it.
[27:48]You had another venue.
[27:49]Yes, exactly.
[27:51]All right.
[27:52]Well, thank you so much.
[27:53]It was great chatting with you.
[27:54]It was so great chatting with you too.
[27:56]I hope I get to do it again soon.
[27:58]Thank you.
[27:58]You too.
[27:58]Well, right in the middle.
[28:00]All right.
[28:00]All right, and I'll see you then.
[28:02]OK.
[28:03]All right.
[28:04]So bye.
[28:05]Bye.
[28:07]Hi, I'm Sivi Owens.
[28:09]And you're listening to the award-winning podcast.
[28:11]Moms don't have time to read books.
[28:13]If you like this podcast, you will love my new anthology
[28:16]called Moms Don't Have Time to Have Kids.
[28:18]Check it out, and you'll hear from 49 authors about all sorts
[28:21]of things moms don't have time to do.
[28:23]All the authors have been on this podcast.
[28:25]Also, check out my TikTok at with Sivi and Tracy.
[28:28]My other podcast, Sex Talk with Sivi and Tracy.
[28:31]Check out Moms Don't Have Time to Write on Medium.
[28:34]And of course, my new publishing company called Sivi Books.
[28:38]And now back to our daily author interview site
[28:40]and a quick hello from some of my kids.
[28:42]Hi, hi, hello.
[28:44]Enjoy the show.