Sisterhood of World Bloggers Nomination

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers AwardWe 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?

1000 Voices for Compassion

There is a movement afoot among the blogging community to stir our readers toward greater compassion.

Crystal Cook's photo.

 

I’m on board.

As a shy child I was a watcher, and still am.

I see the older sister trying to smile brightly, while everyone fussed over her little sibling, the one who stole her place in the family.

I see the hurt and withdrawal on the woman’s face after her partner cuts her off and puts her down.

I see the homeless man, sunken in on himself as he pushes his cart, all his earthly possessions.

I see the young teen waiting near the high school for a ride home. He doesn’t fit, no crowd to belong to. He plugs in and tunes out, his smartphone his only friend. Does he pretend to be texting, trying to make people around think someone wants to hear from him?

I see the woman who slips in the back, and leaves early, so she won’t have to feel the emptiness of friendship swirling around, leaving her out.

I see the teen girl – way more of her than I’d like – trying so hard to matter, not knowing she’s worth so much more than skin and sex.

I see the woman with the scarf tied round her head, holding tightly to this life as chemo gives her hope, but steals her strength, and more.

I see all of that on one, normal day in an affluent, safe town in Florida.

Bario Los Fuertes from water Roatan , Honduras, CA
Bario Los Fuertes

What I saw in Honduras, like most third world countries, was often very painful.

Gaunt women hauling firewood, balancing a bucket of water, two or three bare-footed little ones trailing behind.

A girl not yet a woman giving birth on an earthen floor, her walls found-cardboard, and her only companions huge roaches.

A man who can’t find his way home after drinking all night, slashing his friend with a machete.

A little boy burned over 75% of his body from a kerosene cook “stove” made from a large can.

A lame diabetic woman left to her own resources, until the stench of gangrene in her leg drives her neighbors to call for help, too late.

Dona Estefana, Bario Brick Bay, Roatan, Honduras
Dona Estefana

All around the world we can recognize pain, if we have the eyes to see.

But only if we are willing to feel, because we can’t really see if we aren’t willing to feel, too.

I know, we don’t really want to think about and see children tricked or kidnapped into sexual slavery.

Or masses of people abused because of the color, gender, or social status they were born into.

Thousands driven out of their homes, and many murdered, in the name of religion, their children growing up in refuge camps.

And what of the pain we can’t see with our eyes?

Only the heart sees the pain

of the death of a child or mate,

of miscarriage,

of bareness,

of abortion,

of child abuse covered and ignored for years,

the singular pain of being “other,”

of being alone.
Woman in Switzerland by Jack H Thompson

Because I see, I can so easily feel overwhelmed.

After about four months in Honduras, I collapsed and cried, “I don’t want to see one more poor, miserable person!” My husband reminded me that taking care of the world is not my job. Not even Tela, Honduras. I can only change what God puts right in front of me to do.

So, with open eyes, I look, I see, I feel.

For many, just being SEEN is a gift.

Sometimes I can take action, but more often all I can do is care, and pray.

And we can all benefit from a prayer, can’t we?

To drive away the darkness, strike one match.

Take out your heart of compassion.

SEE.

Light one candle, however you can.

Are you on board?

Eternity in our hearts

How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? Perhaps you’ve achieved some, but haven’t found the satisfaction you expected. Like the child on Christmas afternoon, he bursts into anger over some small thing, bewildered by the disappointment the eagerly awaited day has produced. Goals are good things. Trying is important. But nothing really, completely satisfies.

CS Lewis Mere Christianity
Made for another world

In a few days, I will mark six months since I walked with my mother to the door of death. And the strange heaviness, though not my constant companion as it was the first months, has still attacked me at random moments – entering the grocery store and seeing something I should buy for her – opening my cabinet and finding her measuring cup – planning a day trip and wondering if she’d enjoy the ride – hearing something delightful from a grandchild and anticipating sharing it with her.

Mom on Pensacola Beach sand dune
Mom on Pensacola Beach sand dune

A few nights ago I had a dream. Occasionally I have dreams that are vivid, clear and more real than being awake. This was one of those.

I was standing by a large body of water and called out, “Who wants to hear what I’ve been writing?” My mother swam towards me and climbed out of the water, full of life as she was the last time we played in the Gulf of Mexico in Pensacola Beach. She wave and replied, “I want to hear it, Janie-girl!” and climbed out.

As she drew closer, she grew weaker, and by the time I helped her onto a lounge chair she had shriveled into an invalid. I covered her with thick blankets to quell her shaking. Between chattering teeth, she encouraged me to begin reading Listen the Wind, the historical novel I am putting the finishing touches on, and she had edited for grammar and spelling errors when her mind was still sharp. As I started to read, we were on higher ground, looking out over the water, and she was in a hospital bed, growing weaker.

A sweet, clueless nurse, brought her food. Mom shook her head and turned toward the water and the bright sun as it moved toward the horizon. The nurse kept offering smaller bits, encouraging Mom to eat and gain her strength.

Bartholomew sunset by J H Thompson
Bartholomew sunset

When the smallest piece, a little brown biscuit was offered, Mom pushed it away and whispered to me, “Don’t you see what really matters?”

Then I saw what she was so concentrated on in the splendor of the sun glowing over the water,
calling her to eternity.

Bird in clouds by Jack H Thompson
Bird in clouds

And she was gone.

I awoke in the early morning light, tears streaming down my face, with profound peace. I knew that my mother, who most of my life hadn’t understood me (we were very different personalities) deeply loved me and valued my writing.

In my dream, I felt as if she had shared a measure of eternity with me, to encourage me in my journey.

The sense of eternity stayed with me, carried me through the day.

I no longer wish I had another chance to hug her or bring her ice cream or talk with her. She has reached her goal —

the goal we are all yearning for, whether we know it or not.

We all have eternity etched in our hearts.

So, if you don’t achieve all your goals, or complete what you have planned, or even if you do, and it doesn’t satisfy, you can rest assured that it was meant to be.

You were created for so much more.

Eternity on golden clouds photo by J H Thompson
Eternity on golden clouds

Let’s chat:

Have you had an experience that gave you a larger perspective on your life?

What would encourage you right now?