packrat

Today I did a very good thing and threw out some stuff!

I have packrat tendencies. Especially when it comes to papers and articles and information. It’s because I have this problem, two problems actually.

The first is that in the past I’ve read stuff and sometimes though I’ve found it interesting, haven’t saved it. Then, hours to days later I’ve realized it was important, nay, vital. Mostly I get ideas of articles I could write and then kick myself for not saving the relevant info. And so I’ve got into the habit of clipping or printing and saving whenever something twigs with me in the least way.

The second problem happens when I finally decide I’ll never need some article or clipping or magazine. I throw it out, then hours later find I do need it after all.

Accomodating these two things has led to a very stuffed file drawer. So today, in order to make room for more stuff that’s been accumulating in a ‘To File’ folder, I decided I really should tackle that drawer.

I did it in the livingroom in front of the TV. It turned out to be practically painless because I was distracted by curling. It took the whole curling match, but now, my files no longer contain clippings about computers from 1985, or things that went on in Canadian politics in 1996, or the prophesied doom of Y2K.

So what writing ideas do you suppose will come to mind just after the recycle truck has roared out of our cul-de-sac Tuesday?

costello calls to buy a computer from abbott

(No, I DIDN’T write this.)

ABBOTT: Super Duper Computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look in the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write
proposals, track expenses and run my business. What have you got?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, lets just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W".
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with some straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?
ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One.
COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of
your business. Just tell me what I need!
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: If it's a long movie I also want to see reel 2, 3 & 4. Can I watch them?
ABBOTT: Of course.
COSTELLO: Great! With what?
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do?
ABBOTT: You click the blue "1".
COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?
ABBOTT: The blue "1".
COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue "W"?
ABBOTT: The blue "1" is Real One and the blue "W" is Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: But there's three words in "Office for Windows"!
ABBOTT: No, just one. But it's the most popular Word in the world.
COSTELLO: It is?
ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other Words left. It pretty much wiped out all the other Words out there.
COSTELLO: And that word is real one?
ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real One isn't even part of Office.
COSTELLO: STOP! Don't start that again. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

A FEW DAYS LATER

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on "START"..

i love my church

"Christian Dropouts–Some believers have quit church to practice their faith alone. Is this a healthy trend?" questions the February 2005 cover of Charisma Magazine.

The articles in Charisma, as well as this recent blog post on Nick Queen’s series "Out of the Wilderness" - Series 2, his interview with the blog 'Mommy Life'

Q [5.] to Mommy Life: "What denomination do you consider yourself? "

A: "...we haven’t been hampered by loyalty to a particular church or denomination. And I don’t make apologies for "church hopping." We go where the Spirit leads us. I also thing that writers have a broader view than the general church population..."

got me thinking along the lines of how do I feel about my church and what’s the point of the local church anyway.

I’ll say right off, I don't share this blogger's feelings!

I’ve been part of three denominations in my life, and would not consider my association with any of them ‘hampering.’

I grew up in the Mennonite Brethren church. There as a youngster I got saved, was nurtured by a church family, had access to a church library, was water baptized at 14, attended their denominational Bible School after high school, and got a grounding in theology.

As an adult and then through most of our growing-up years as a family, we were part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. They grew in us a keen consciousness of and an appreciation for missions. As well we learned the value of Bible study and the importance of a life of intimacy with God.

Most lately we’ve joined a church which is aligned with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. This latest step has been the continuation of our spiritual pilgrimage–on which we’ve had a sense of God gently moving us from one place to another. To make this step, though, we didn’t church-hop (though I am not denigrating church-hopping with a view to finding the right church and settling into it). We came to Christian Life Assembly in Langley first by attending their Sunday night Fire and Freedom services when our own church didn’t have anything going Sunday nights. We fell in love with the worship, the warmth of the people, but mostly the sense of God’s presence there. When we felt it was time to move on, there was no question in our minds about where we would go.

Being part of a local church is hugely important to me. Here are some reasons:

1. Corporate worship. There’s nothing like lifting my voice in praise to God with hundreds of others.

2. My life needs that weekly plumbline adjustment I get from the pastor’s sermon.

3. The church gives me a context in which I can discover and use my spiritual gifts.

4. The church is the storehouse to which I can bring my tithe.

5. The church is where I am equipped to minister.

6. The church gives me a place to go when I am in need–of prayer, or moral and spiritual support, or even in physical need.

7. The church is a place where I can find fellow-travellers who will keep me accountable.

8. The church gives me a venue through which I can impact the world. There is nothing like a month of missions’ emphasis to get one in touch with, and enthusiastic about, what can be accomplished if we pool our resources and work at this together.

The local church is God’s idea: "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews
10:24,25)

And speaking of "the Day approaching..." some days in church feel like what one imagines heaven will be like after judgement day ("After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb." Revelation 7:9).

Last Sunday’s flag parade to celebrate the start of missions month was one of those foreshadowing-of-heaven days for me (‘fast’ connection needed for this. Fast-forward ‘seek’ bar to 4:30 to bypass first worship song).

this week's christian carnival

This week's Chriatian Carnival went up yesterday at Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet. Diane set herself a daunting job when she went about organizing these 50 posts under Soap Opera titles. Wow!

I’m going to try to get through them all - one way or another. As I go, I’ll highlight the ones that catch my eye.


To this point, I really appreciated the post in which Ron Stewart of Northernburbsblog answers the questions about Christianity put to him by just-about-lawyer Not-crunchy in Answering Not-crunchy’s call.

Update March 4th

Catez at Allthings2all writes the article: Xenotransplants: Are Pig Cells in Humans the Answer? (Interesting fodder for sci fi fiction here methinks!)

...in the outer... on What is the Real Purpose of Prayer.

Weapons of Warfare discusses what can apologetics blogging hope to accomplish in The Point of it All.

wisdom from annie dillard

Yesterday I picked up Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard from the library. I had put a hold on it a few weeks ago, because I wanted to read a whole volume by this woman, whom I’ve only seen quoted.

In fact, I have one of those quotes on the bulletin board beside my desk. (This to help me guard against the bad habit I have of mental squirreling away, then never coming back to exploit the hoard.)

"One of the few things I know about writing is this: Spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book, give it, give it all, give it now...Some more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, frm beneath like well water.

"Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes."

I’m partway through the second chapter of Pilgrim. Oh my. She is good. Here are a few bits from the chapter "Seeing"

"Unfortunately, nature is very much a now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t affair. A fish flashes, then dissolves in the water before my eyes like so much salt. Deer apparently ascend bodily into heaven, the brightest oriole fades into leaves. These disappearances stun me into stillness and concentration; they say of nature that it conceals with a grand nonchalance, and they say of vision that it is a deliberate gift, the revelation of a dancer who for my eyes only flings away her seven veils....

"It’s all a matter of keeping my eyes open. Nature is like one of those line drawings of a tree that are puzzles for children: Can you find hidden in the leaves a duck, a house, a boy, a bucket, a zebra, and a boot? Specialists can find the most incredibly well-hidden things..." (Harper's Magazine Press, 1974, p. 16,17)

I wonder, what seven-veil dancer will I see today– if I keep my eyes open? What images will leap from a tangle of lines? How will I use my gift?

my frustrating, run-around, exhausting, very-good day

Yesterday was one of those days where I knew, from when my feet hit the floor, I couldn’t waste a minute. I had bought a ticket for a women’s missionary luncheon at our church, and in the evening we had cell meeting at our house – this on top of my usual several hours of typing. So I planned to start out in efficient mode by picking up my work early (the building opens at 7:00 a.m.). Of course I immediately set out on the wrong foot by taking too long posting in my blog.

I was merrily typing by 8:30 though. My first email break at 9 o’clock (I check my email on the hour - "haloscan - you’ve got a comment" is such a nice break from the doc’s droning voice), handed me another hiccup... or two.

A note from a friend, telling me her dad was now ill too, and this on top of her mom in the hospital the last four months, broke my concentration.

And this email from my daughter re her wedding photographer: "She (the photographer) called me back last night to say that she is very, very sorry but something that she was booked for on May Long weekend got moved to the weekend of my wedding. She won't be able to do my pictures. So I hung up the phone and had a little cry," put me in a mother-spin, as every cell in my body cried out I’ll rescue you! I’ll rescue you! But at the moment I was three hours’ drive away and had work to do. So I forwarded that email on to hubby, to deal with if he wished, and pushed on toward my goal to finish my work by the time I had to leave for the luncheon.

My 10 o’clock email check handed me another interruption. It was from one of my March Treehouse column contributors. The poem he’d submitted was missing a line. Yikes! So my typing went on hold again as I searched back through our email exchange and discovered - he was right!

(Now I thought his poem read ok without that line, though he insisted it didn’t make any sense at all. But, I know the frustration of having my work appear not as I’d submitted it. A year ago I had a poem published on the back cover of Bird’s and Blooms. The first stanza, as I’d sent it in to them went, in part: "To-whit, to-whee, to-whit, to-why, / Sunrise has come and gone, now I / Remember autumn with a sigh..." But it was published: "To-whit, to-whee, to-whit, to-why, / Sunrise has come and gone, no I / Remember autumn with a sigh..." Argh!)

So trying to fix my blunder meant another flurry of emails as I contacted him, got his approval of how it should be, then wrote the editor, cap-in-hand, pleading, could she get it changed somehow, please?

By now it was time to leave for the luncheon, in fact I was running late. It didn’t help to arrive to a gym-full of women and not recognize anyone (ours is a large church, we live a fair distance from it so don’t attend everything, and have only gone there under five years). But then (sigh of relief) there was Jean, from my cell group, and Ardeena, whom I’d met through a class we took together, and an open spot at their table.

The luncheon was fabulous – interviews of six fascinating women, and a multi-ethnic meal (samosas, some kind of oriental roll, curried rice, Russian cabbage salad – and Canadian lemon slice for dessert, washed down with jasmine tea! - yum), served on a banana leaf.

Then it was back to reality. I stopped by Sears on the way home to check out something to do with mom’s proposed wedding gift to Sonia (duvet, duvet covers - that sort of thing), and discovered that, as usual, my interpretation of items in their latest flyer was faulty – another dead end. But all in all, I got home safely through the building late-afternoon traffic and was back in my home cubicle by 3:00.

Before I lit into my typing again I opened my email (of course!) and discovered the dropped line had been added (whew!!), and that Hubby had written a reassuring response to his distraught little girl.

I finally managed to finish those letters, before dinner, and got through the whole routine of printing labels, backing up work etc., after the dishes were done. By 7:00, I’d tidied the kitchen, put up coffee and all associated paraphernalia, chosen a worship song for our meeting but was exhausted.

"I feel bruised," I remarked to Ernie. "This is the kind of night I’d like to do nothing more than go up to my room and lose myself in a book."

"But you can’t do that," he said to me.

True.

Our cell group members came right on time, and immediately I began to re-energize. Who wouldn’t with this great group of friends and fellow pilgrims? Last night joining our usual seven was Steve.

Now Ernie prayed at the altar with Steve several Sundays ago, when he came to re-dedicate his life to Christ. In a manner that would make Pastor Anne (DON’T DROP THE BABIES!) Donkers proud, Ernie has kept in touch with him in the last weeks, encouraging him, praying with him, and helping him through the stuff that new Christians face as they deal with the grunge of a messed up life.

It was a great evening of laughing, singing, talking, crying, praying, hugging!

I read one whole page in my book last night – before I fell into a deep and peaceful sleep. Real life, as in a frustrating, run-around, exhausting, very-good day, is definitely not always as neat as fiction, considerably more tiring, but all in all a heap more satisfying!

fw mag

Just got to give a heads-up about a great little ezine - FaithWriters Magazine - which comes out once a month. The March issue came online today.

Here’s what I’ve read so far, and can highly recommend:

Book review of Obessed and interview with Ted Dekker
(by E. Dian Moore - Dian, what great questions!)

Karen Treharne’s article explaining all those forum/email/comment acronyms.

This great (light) poem "Cyber Space Explorer" by Dean Herring .

The Table of Contents page has links to all the articles. (Yeah, I know... as if one doesn’t already have enough to read!)

Deb Porter (editor) - Another great job!

free books!

Fellow blogger Stacy Harp has recently started a company called Mind & Media with the purpose of publicizing authors, filmakers and other forms of media through blogs. And she’s looking for help – our help! Mind & Media needs all kinds of bloggers to review upcoming material.

It’s free books, guys! And a graphic for your website while you review the book, which you can do in one shot, or blog it as you read it. Then later, you might even want to do an interview with the author.

So, check out Stacy’s several sites:
MediaSoul
Mind & Media
E-Involved.org

If you think you’d like to help out with reviews, email her. (Free books guys!!)

greg sczebel nominated for juno

Greg Sczebel's CD "Here To Stay" has been nominated for a Juno award (Canada's premiere music awards) in the Contemporary Christian category. (It's the CD I wrote about here: and some have the audacity to question the taste of 50-something women- even implying they may not be hip enough!?)

fishing

FISH ARE UNAWARE
"Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." - Jesus

Fish are unaware
that they’re
a catch,
preoccupied
with seeking food.

Wily angler uses
every angle
casts a wide net
sets irresistible trap
obsesses on fish-study
where they eat,
and what and when.

Not above pursuing them
waist-deep in water
or sitting cramped for hours
in a boat
he goes where fish
are known to be
then casts and casts again...

and should a school of hungry fish
swim by, what overjoyed confusion
reeling in, resetting bait
and casting out once more
before that multitude moves on
and it’s too late

Copyright © V. Nesdoly - 2004

makes one think

Have you noticed how ideas one comes across often seem to complement each other? This happens to me a lot--in Bible reading and then in my Oswald Chambers devotional. Also in the blog world.

Yesterday I read this anecdote by Robin Lee Hatcher, about how books she’d written a few years ago, when she was drifting from God, are still around and have come back to bite her.

Today I read "Second Chances" by John Zimmer (letter from babylon).

Makes one think...

i'm being interviewed!!

This is another in the continuing web of blogosphere interviews.

Professional radio personality Cindy Swanson, who blogs at Notes in the Key of Life asks me these questions. (And I think my answers are way too long-winded. In real life, I’m sure she’d have to cut me off for important stuff like commercials or just 'get on with it'. Oh well...)

1) I know you are a published writer. How do you handle rejection slips?

I’ve had my share, and I handle them pretty much in three ways.

a] I try to handle them philsophically. The first rejection slip I ever got was for some craft ideas I submitted to Hopscotch. This was way back when I was still taking a writing course. Some weeks later, a familiar-looking envelope arrived (my SASE) containing a form letter saying ‘no thanks.’ I pretty much took this in stride. I was new at this business, still had much to learn and at least I was submitting.

b] But rejections have immobilized me. That’s what happened after one I got from gp4k.com. By that time I’d already pitched and sold an article to editor Roseanne Tolin, so when I got her go-ahead on another one, and worked weeks to get the thing thoroughly researched and enticingly written, I was shocked when, less than 24 hours after I’d emailed it to her, I got a to-the-point reply which said, in effect, research is impressive, but this is boring. Talk about a sucker punch. I was pretty much out of commission for weeks after that.

c] My relationship with Pockets typifies the perseverence I try to cultivate. Right from when I first started submitting stuff for publication (circa 1997), I’d send them things. Always they came back. But the sample magazine of theirs was so beautiful (and their pay rates so good - for children’s), I was determined they would publish me. Finally one day, instead of my SASE, I got a postcard (on their dime) telling me they were holding my story for their editorial meeting in November. Yes! But, sadly, November came and so did the manuscript, back to me with a note: ‘Not suitable for our needs.’ With Pockets, though, I was a bulldog. And it paid off. They finally accepted one of my pieces in the spring of 2003. I’ve since had another acceptance from them, and a few weeks ago, another postcard telling me they’ll be holding a manuscript of mine for further consideration - until (get this) March of 2006!

2) What do you enjoy most about blogging?
I love being my own editor! It is so fun, writing what I want, as long or short as I want, on whatever subjects I want. And I also thoroughly enjoy the interaction with other bloggers–the way it stimulates ideas and keeps one thinking and on one’s toes.

3) What's your favorite holiday and why?
It’s got to be summer vacation. My favorite thing is to go away for a week or two with hubby, rent a cottage or a hotel room by a lake somewhere – say Osoyoos or Shuswap on the mainland, or Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island– and simply veg - read, play games, listen to music, have long devotions, sun, go for walks, drives, sightsee. I love the change of pace and scenery and how I come back to the work-world mellowed and with a changed perspective.

4) You're going to a desert island, but you get to take five things with you.
What would they be?
I would take five kits: a food preparation kit; a shelter kit; a communication kit; a writing kit; a Bible study kit
(This is NOT cheating. Though these kits contain more than one thing, every solitary item one could choose contains many things as well. A book, for example, contains two covers, many pages and a ton of words.)

5) What do you like best about your husband?
There are so many things I could pick–his sense of humor, his loyalty, his helpfulness... But I will pick one thing that overrides all those–his integrity. He does not play games, is not sneaky or underhanded (although he does know how to drive a hard bargain when wheeling and dealing e.g. buying a car). You know where you stand with him. He’s straight with you and he expects you to be straight with him. If he says he will do something–he’ll do it. He’s a rock and I love that!

************

Would you like to play the interview game? Here's how:

1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.” The first five commenters will be the participants.

2. I will respond by asking you five questions.

3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

friday goody bag

For those who love a delicious irony: there is a proposed anti-abortion legislation to protect gay-gene carriers: New Maine House Bill Would Protect Fetuses Carrying the ‘‘Gay Gene’’ (Hat Tip - The Crusty Curmudgeon)

Mind on higher things: Rebecca Writes continues to unearth treasures from the Puritan era. This post contains a sermon segment from "Christ Altogether Lovely" delivered by John Flavel, which is certainly worth some meditation.

For writers:

- first impressions DO matter: Dave Long at faith*in*fiction has written a series of posts (Monday to Thursday - starts here) giving writers of book-length fiction a behind-the-scenes look at how an editor reads and processes that pile of unsolicited manuscripts.

- Terry Whalin at The Writing Life is doing a series on article writing. Now we no longer have the excuse to say, I don’t know how. (Part 8 with links to the other segments.)

christian carnival is up

at Wallo World.

Wallo World’s blog holds a place of high esteem for me and I owe him a debt of gratitude. A few months ago, when the blogosphere was going through yet another session of navel-gazing, Joe at the evangelical outpost featured a series on blogging. In that series he linked to this article by Bill Wallo, from a previous and similar ‘why-am-I-blogging’ -type cycle. When I read these words of Mr. Wallo, something pinged! He articulated exactly why I too was blogging:

As I looked at other blogs and saw the types that were successful, I recognized a couple of things. First that I didn’t have the time to blog like many top bloggers do. Second, that my interests were varied and I wanted to say things about quite a variety of topics. I wanted to do a general blog, not a law blog or a Christian blog or a comics blog, or whatever. I wanted to be able to write about whatever suited my fancy.

So thank you Wallo World (not, of course, that I could write a law or comics blog - but I can do 'whatever')! If I ever rename my blog, I will call it Miss Elaineous (and how fitting–seeing as how Elaine is my real second name!).

the first step

Today Donna at The Master’s Artist writes about lessons in perseverance to be learned from by writers from the book of Nehemiah. She says, in part...

Before Nehemiah began his mission to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem, he prayed and fasted. But he didn't stop there. He made a plan. But he didn't stop there. He followed through on that plan. He put not only feet, but hands, brain, and hard work to his prayers.

I’ve been reading Nehemiah in my personal devotions since Sunday and have had some of the same thoughts. I’ve wondered, though, whether the secret of Nehemiah’s success didn’t come in the first step.

During those days Nehemiah spent in fasting, weeping and prayer, it seems something happened between God and him. His passion to see the walls of Jerusalem rebuilt led to the sense that God was fingering him for the assignment and in some way making him personally responsible and accountable. That personal call led him to jeopardize his well-being as he requested of his boss Artaxerxes, not only for time away from his job as a cup-bearer, but for help with the project in the form of protection and letters.

He would need that knowledge of divinely decreed vocation in the days ahead. For the rebuilding of the wall was riddled with setbacks, discouragements, naysayers, outright opposition. I believe it was in large measure the knowledge this was an assignment from God that kept him on-task.

I’m thinking the reason some of my writing projects fizzle may be that I have skipped that first step. If I’m beginning projects on my own without knowing this is an assignment from God, is it any wonder when the fire in my belly cools, when the project feels too big for me, when I compare my meager talents with the talents of others, or a myriad of similar obstacles loom, I give up?

is Terri Schiavo living her final hours?

The clock is ominously ticking down for Terri Schiavo--unless someone intervenes with a reversal of the court order to remove her feeding tube. This New York Times article explains the situation today.

Catez at Allthings2all explains what we can do in yesterday's post: "Terri Schiavo: Will You Help to Wash Her Feet?" She also provides background in Terri Schiavo: Who Crushes a Butterfly With a Hammer."

how to resist the redecorating craze

Directions for writers (0r bloggers):

Do you live in a house whose walls are still builder-beige after all these years? Do you return home from visiting friends to find yourself entertaining the nagging thought - I should do something with this place?

Now I’m not talking about adding the odd picture, bookshelf or file cabinet. I’m referring to serious redecorating where you move all the furniture, replace flooring, paint or paper walls, build stuff – in other words, bring major disruption on yourself. For though part of you knows you should redecorate, another part argues, why would you plunge yourself into such chaos when all you really want is the peace and quiet to write?

If this is you, take heart. Help is at hand. Do one or all of the suggestions below and house-guilt will forever be a thing of the past.

1. Watch lots of redecorating shows. Even a few of these will exhaust you and leave you feeling that you yourself have been redecorating for days.

2. Have a husband who, the first time you mention redecorating goes apoplectic and ever after asks for complicated things like a cost-benefit analysis (well, actually no, but he does ask if it fits in my budget - what budget?!).

3. Hang around with friends who are perpetually redecorating. You’ll soon find that in all the time it takes to collect and consider paint and carpet swatches, visit drapery stores and home shows, you could have finished your novel - or at least come up with an article idea.

4. Redecorate one room as a trial run. When you see how much work it is, you’ll be cured forever.

5. Scrub your house till it glows. Who’d want to improve on such a lovable place anyway?

6. If you should happen to find that lonely decorating article that lauds the hodge-podge look of your home, keep it handy against the next time the urge to redecorate resurfaces.

7. Buy one or two trendy accessories to make you feel better (no matter that they don’t fit the 80s decor of your home).

8. Stay the course and one of these years the house fashion trends will come full circle. All those mulberry, taupe and navy walls of your friends will find themselves beige again, faux wood will be all the rage again and your house will be fashionable again without you ever raising a hammer or paintbrush.

9. Stay the course and before you know it your house will be a community heritage treasure with by-law protection against change.

10. Write instead, make lots of money and hire a professional decorator or your decorator-savy friends.

11. Write instead, make lots of money and move to a house that comes pre-decorated.

12. Memorize every Bible verse about contentment that you can find. Start with: "If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (I Timothy 6:8 - NIV).

(BTW - This isn’t new. I wrote it about a year ago in response to a weekly FaithWriters.com weekly Writing Challenge. I think it’s part of a book collection somewhere--yes it's in volume 1. Of course I still live by these principles!)

taking stock

I don’t know whether it’s a recent funeral or all the birthdays celebrated in the last little while, but my thoughts have lately gone to the brevity of life. Not in a macabre way, but more in an urgency, check-up-on-myself way. I think this focus also has to do with other changes I’ve experienced.

My kids (at 19 and almost 22) don’t monopolize my time and attention like they used to. A few years ago I simplified my job by working for only one client instead of several. And when my husband a year ago and took over some of my housework jobs, I suddenly found myself free to do what I’d always dreamed of doing - actually writing for a chunk of time every day. I expected that when this happened the projects I'd always hoped to complete would somehow start coming to pass. It hasn’t been like that.

Instead, I've experienced the fact that just because you have some time to write doesn't mean you'll spend it doing the hard stuff...getting those ideas, writing those first drafts, sending out those manuscripts. Lately the cold breeze of reality has blown across my life as I consider what I’ll probably get done if I carry on at the same pace. I've become more realistic and sober in what I fantasize I’ll accomplish. To grapple with this sense of time slipping away I’ve started asking myself questions like:

• What, of all the things I’d like to do, will I, at the end of my life, feel disappointed if I haven’t achieved?
  
• If I knew I could do just one or two or three more projects, what would they be?
  
• How will I account to God for the talents, opportunities and assignments I’ve been given?
  

Now I’m not sick, and I am expecting to live a good many years yet. But at the same time, I’m becoming more aware of how easy it is to procrastinate and fritter away hours and days. When I look back over recent weeks and months with my list of sensed assignments and ‘must dos’ in mind, and see what little I have to show for time spent, I realize it’s a good thing to take stock.

The grass withers, the flower fades beneath the breath of God. And so it is with fragile man. The grass withers, the flower fade, but the Word of our God shall stand forever. Isa.40:7,8 (TLB)

What, after all, is your life? It is like a puff of smoke visible for a little while and then dissolving into thin air." James 4:14 (Phillips)

"...our days on earth are like a shadow, gone so soon, without a trace." I Chronicles 29:15 (TLB)

tournament of hearts - YES!!

Canada’s premiere women’s curling bonspiel - the Tournament of Hearts - begins today! I curled a little myself one winter when I lived in Hazelton. A group of us went to Smithers to curl every week. Predictably, I was lousy at it - as I am at every sport! (For an explanation of how it works, Kim of The Upward Call has explained it very nicely here.)

But I love watching others do it well. Here are some reasons to watch (and love) curling:

1. It’s a smart game. It’s been called chess on ice. Each skip works on setting up the house to their advantage several ends away - anticipating what shots the opponent has, and trying to block them while at the same time, getting their own rocks-in-a-row, for that the final button shot.

2. It’s a polite game. No bashing people around, getting penalties, bloody noses and broken necks (like some other games we know).

3. It’s played by ordinary folks. Where else do people who in real life are clerks and accountants and technicians and housewives get a chance to be in the sports spotlight?

4. It’s easy to watch. No guessing where the rock is. No missing the play. No question about who’s who. Also, the close-up television shots of players’ faces give watching it a huge human interest factor.

Here’s a ditty I wrote about curling a couple of years ago - a little work done in an attempt to placate my conscience for those hours frittered in front of the TV...

Curling

In the hack and grip your rock
crouch so low and glide so nice
eyes on broom across the sheet
send the stone along the ice.

Skip is yelling form the house
to the sweeper, Hurry hard!
Rock is light and slowing fast
comes to rest, a perfect guard.

Rival stone sits in the rings
(they would dearly love to steal)
Throw a bullet, is the call,
Sweep it clean, we want to peal.

Now the house is getting full
stones in twelve-foot, four-foot, eight-
try the double, watch the jam
need to throw a lot of weight!

It’s our hammer and last rock
draw to button a clear shot
sweep for line and watch it curl –
it looks easy, but it’s not!

friday pocketful

It’s a beautiful Friday afternoon and I’m going to take a few minutes to dump my pocketful of treasures in here

We kept to our Friday routine thing today and drove out to Abbotsford, stopping at Superstore along the way to pick up groceries for Mom, then detoured to MacDonald’s to pick up three coffees and Fruit ‘n Fiber muffins.

Mom was good. She’s been making more cards. We put away the groceries, then sat around having coffee and chatting. Before we left, I set her hair.

Traffic on the Number 1 coming home was heavy both ways, as it usually is. We decided not to take the time to go into Fort Langley and do the Fort-to-Fort Trail. Instead, we came straight home, had a quick lunch of toasted bagels, cheese and apples, and then drove to Elgin Park for our walk.

Signs of spring are everywhere! The alder twig ends are dripping with chubby rufus-colored catkins-in-the making. Under the old oak tree a patch of snowdrops was in full bloom. Beside the Stewart Farmhouse where we parked, a stand of early daffodils will open probably tomorrow or Sunday. Even the birds sound energized.

Let’s see if I can remember all the birds we saw today:

herons
a kingfisher
a hawk
ducks
- green-winged teals
- widgeons
- mallards
- buffleheads
a loon eating a fish
sandpipers

It’s just lovely walking along the banks of the Nicomekl! Today the air was crisp, the breeze fresh, the sky blue, the sun grinning. The day has a just-out-of-school feeling.

Thank You, Lord, for pleasant interludes, for a hubby with whom to enjoy them, for the innocent and un-selfconscious world of nature, for this beautiful spot on earth we call home...

Now for a shot of reality. I must clean my house.