Having a heart of compassion isn’t fixing the whole world, but it is responding when a need appears. Here is a tangible need that, together, we can meet.
Category: Peace
Sisterhood of World Bloggers Nomination
We interrupt our usual programming with this special word:
I want to thank Zoe M McCarthy, author of Calculated Risk, for nominating me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award.
As part of the process, Zoe posed questions that you might be curious to know as well.
1. Why did you start blogging?
Initially I started because editors and agents insisted that writers build their own readership. I tossed around a lot of topics, until my youngest daughter asked me a series of questions and helped me see that I am all about healing and peace. Once I had that focus, I began to write, and haven’t looked back. I love it! Actually, I have spent more mental time on my blog than my fiction. I count it a privilege to share my little glimpses of peace.
2. What was the topic of the blog you wrote that had the greatest impact on your readers and why?
That is hard to gauge, since all I have to go by are comments and stats. According to them, my posts surrounding my mother’s death have touched many readers. We all face death and loss, and dealing with that reality is not something you find in typical chitchat, or T.V. sitcom. In Glimpse of Peace I share what I see and feel. That is often scary. (No. It’s always scary to be so transparent.) My point is more than the pain. We all have that. I try to share hope. Real hope.
3. What is your process from getting a blog idea to announcing your just submitted post?
As soon as I hit “Publish,” my mind begins seeking the next one. All week long, everything I read, see, hear and undergo runs through that filter. Sometimes a phrase will hit the mark, other times an experience, and sometimes it’s a picture, saying or Bible verse that speaks volumes to me. I have to refrain from thinking about “what they need,” but focus on what is most real to me. That is what resonates with others as well. Once I sit and start typing, the words usually flow. Then I’m on to finding the right photos, sometimes embedding my poetry or verses into a photo, and formatting the whole lot. I go through many revisions until I cry uncle and hit “Publish.”
4. What is something you’d like to learn how to do to improve your blog this year?
Mechanics is probably what I spend the most time on, and get frustrated with. I’m learning some html. That and the photos. My husband has thousands of great ones, so I spend way too much time going through pictures, formatting, etc. They have become integral to my blog. So I want to learn how to do it all without spending hours after I’ve finished the writing.
5. What kinds of blogs do you enjoy reading?
I love contemplative blogs with writing that drills through to my heart, like Ann Voskamp and Dani Di Lucca. I also spend lots of time on how-to’s, everything from Zoe McCarthy’s writer helpls, to how I can get more toner from my cartridge. I’m a funny mix of artistic and practical, so I run the gamut. My biggest problem is limiting myself. There isn’t enough time for all I’d like to read!
6. What are three words that best describe who you are?
Insightful, caring, contemplative
7. What book did you most enjoy reading last year and why?
That’s hard. I love books! This year I haven’t allowed myself a lot of fiction reading, other than those I judged for the Carol Awards or critiqued. I think The Healing Path: How the Hurts in Your Past Can Lead You to a More Abundant Life, by Dan B Allender has impacted me the most. It has a companion study guide which my daughters and I are doing together, by phone. It has been revealing and healing.
8. What is a non-blogging goal you’d like to accomplish this year?
I started to say that was easy, then realized it isn’t. My first goal is consistent physical wellness, so that I can accomplish the other, which is to finish editing my novels and get them in print, and finish writing my contemporary one, which has been awaiting my attention for too long.
9. When you’re not blogging, what do you enjoy doing?
• Taking Lily, my Golden Retriever, to the beach
• Singing and worshiping with my husband
• Time with my kids and grand kids and other family members
• Reading
• Writing
• Bible study
• Gardening
(not necessarily in that order)
10. What was a spiritual lesson you learned in the past year?
God is enough.
My nominees for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award are:
Dani Di Lucca at http://www.bloomingspiders.com
Keri Wyatt Kent at http://www.keriwyattkent.com/will-you-follow-the-voice-of-love/#comment-15764
Sandi Rog at http://sandirog.blogspot.com/
For pure fun:
Kelly Klepfer at http://kellyklepfer.blogspot.com/
Questions for my nominees:
1. What motivates you the most?
2. What are your goals for your blog?
3. Do you write anything outside of blogging?
4. What is your biggest challenge
5. Who do you admire the most?
6. Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction?
7. What book has influenced you the most?
8. What is your greatest fear?
9. If you could accomplish one thing this year, what would you choose?
10. What is your greatest blessing?
Now it’s your turn, dear reader. Will you share your answers to any of those questions?
Where is the peace on earth?
All the ho ho ho-ing and season’s greetings, Christmas carols, crowded malls and grocery stores, packed restaurants and TV commercials promised happiness and warm fuzzy feelings, a Christmas of unsullied glee. Even the angel’s song, quoted in Luke, promised peace on earth. We had so much to look forward to as we decorated trees and hung wreaths, baked cookies and wrapped gifts. So what happened? Where is all the peace on earth?
Why do we still have a world in which two police officers are murdered as they sit in their squad car? What do we say to their children when they open the last gifts they will ever receive from their father?
What about the families of the school children slaughtered in Pakistan to make a political statement?
The ones beheaded by crazed Isis militants for refusing to deny Jesus, the one whose birth was meant to bring peace?
The ones who have lost a child or spouse to disease or accident?
The ones whose children died too young, live with grave disabilities, or never lived at all?
The one who doesn’t even have someone to grieve?
The one whose family has been desecrated by joblessness, abuse, unfaithfulness or addiction?
What do we do with all the broken pieces of our world, and our lives?
I can only see the manger as the portal to joy if I see the empty cross standing high above.
The child who began with a bed of straw became the man who ended with a crown of thorns.
It is a strange, seemingly twisted reality: He died to conquer the darkness.
He rose as king, opening the door for each of us to pass through the valley of the shadow of death into marvelous light.
My earthly heart still feels pain, and my earthly eyes still see darkness,
but my heart knows the wonder of the manger.
Beyond the stable, beyond the hills of Judea, and beyond that cross
is Life, reaching for you, for me,
to guide us through the portal.
The manger entrance to eternity.
Glimpse of Peace 