LIVING

It is almost the end of January, the first month of the year 2010. Everyone has been talking about their plans and focus for this New Year. Contemplating that one month of the twelve is already gone, I let my mind wander to what I see my life encompassing for this year and beyond.

Life Changes

Stages

Seasons

Never stagnant

New horizons

Excitement

Vision

Hope

Letting go

Grabbing on

Embracing tenderly

Laughing

Dancing

Tears

Gentleness

Organization

Simplifying

Getting tough

Saying no

Saying yes

Mourning

Rejoicing

Priorities

Family

Friends

God

Sounds like a full life.

GRUMBLE

I hate not feeling well. It messes up your day(s), week, however long it hangs on. My husband picked up a cold somewhere; if I knew where he had gotten it I would have made him take it back for a refund.

I kept my distance from him, loaded myself up with Black elderberry and Emergen-C and stayed healthy, for about six days. Friday night it made the transition from my husband to me and tacked on a few things he didn’t have, like that ache all over feeling. I’ve had good days and bad. Since I want to be done with this quickly I’ve stayed home a lot and rested.

It is hard to get enthused about anything when your body is under the weather. I don’t feel like eating, so I don’t feel like cooking. However, I do have a husband (may I remind you that he brought the cold home) who likes to eat. Do sandwiches count for a meal? I hope so because that is what he had last night, a chicken panini sandwich and tonight he gets a hot brisket sandwich.

I read five books since Friday and have done a little writing. I finished a story to submit to Chicken Soup and sent it off and have been working on my NaNo novel this afternoon. The Kleenex box has become a part of my necessary writing tools along with my Writer’s Thesaurus.

You would think that when I can’t do much physically I would be able to get a lot of writing done. Writing isn’t physically taxing, but I found that the creativity part of me is off. The scene I wrote for my character ended up being kind of nasty, hum, I may keep it, we’ll see. Anyway, all the above is to say sorry that I haven’t been blogging.

Hope you all stay healthy. I told my husband that the next time he gets sick I am sleeping in another bed.

Image:Yahoo Images

Yes or No?

“What would have happened to Mary (and to all the rest of us) if she had said No to the angel? She was free to do so. But she said, Yes. She was obedient, and the artist, too, must be obedient to the command of the work, knowing that this involves long hours of research, of throwing out a month’s work, of going back to the beginning, or, sometimes, scrapping the whole thing. The artist, like Mary, is free to say No. When a shoddy novel is published the writer is rejecting the obedient response, taking the easy way out. But when the words mean even more than the writer knew they meant, then the writer has been listening. And sometimes when we listen, we are led into places we do not expect, into adventures we do not always understand.” Madeline L’Engle

Whatever we write, when we are writing for the Kingdom, fiction or non-fiction, God has a purpose for that article, book or even a blog. That purpose may be to bring light to one person who has been in darkness, hope to someone who has been feeling hopeless. If a person is crying out to God He will answer that plea and you may be the one He has chosen to use, but if you say No, I’m too busy right now, what is lost?

At times our desperate cries to God seem to go unanswered, it is not because God did not hear, it’s because someone did not listen to His summons or they refused to respond with a Yes. Even though we are free to say No, we will be held responsible for our missed moments.

There have been many times in my life, and there will be many more, when I was the one calling out to God and He answered with words that someone was obedient to pen. I am indebted to those who said Yes.

Will you say Yes when He summons you?

Photos: Yahoo Images

IMPACT

Whose life are you impacting?
How much are you willing to abandon?
How much of what you do is chosen with self interest in mind?
Where do you put your energies, money and time?
What makes your gut twist into a knot and a lump form in your throat?

When are you going to do something?

There are two current movies, The Blind Side and Extraordinary Measures (debuting January 22nd) based on true stories, which have generated these questions in my mind.

I haven’t seen either of the movies, only their trailers. They are movies that bear witness to the impact we can have when we do something instead of uttering purposeless words implying that someone out there ought to be doing something.

As I look at the questions I have posed and apply them to myself they become a challenge to me as a writer. I must put aside my self interests, abandon myself to the story, put my energies, money, or lack of it, and time into writing stories that will impact lives. Anything less than that is dishonorable to God.

If my life is tangled with obligations, meetings, and activities I will miss the moments set before me, moments that may transform another person’s life and my own.

I’m at a loss to describe the ache inside me to become a person who can bring hope to another lost human being.

What do these questions mean to you?

Image: MorgueFile