Monthly Archives: July 2012
A Kiss to Build a Dream On
This is why there will probably always be a romantic element in my stories and novels…..
Happy 17th Anniversary to my wonderful husband, Tim!
It was hot in the sanctuary – in more ways than one!
~Thanks!
Busy Summer
In addition to various travel I’ve already done this summer and more travel soon to visit my family in Ohio, I am very busy at this point with my church’s Bible school. 
I’m not a preachy religious person. I admire and respect other faiths and belief systems. I don’t proselytize. I just have many, many fond memories of growing closer to my God through Bible school and Sunday school and youth group as I was growing up and going through my formative years. One week spent in summer Bible school is one week not spent in front of a screen, playing video games, texting, listening to deafness-inducing music in one’s earbuds, or what-have-you. I enjoy leading story time. It takes me back to my dramatic roots. And Bible stories are helpful to a full Western civilization education.
So I’ve been busy decorating our church, preparing my story time room, and getting things ready for next week’s Bible school.
I hope that you, too, have ways to express yourself and your faith this summer – ways to volunteer to help out where needed – ways to minister to others, young and old – ways to make a difference in others’ lives, however you choose to do so – whether sacred or secular.
Can I get an Amen?
~Thanks!
Lessons From a Tadpole
Tadpoles in a small pool of water in a nearly-dry stream-bed at Natural Bridge in Virginia. I took this on a 100 degree day. The water was cool and refreshing and so clear, and these little guys were so much fun to watch.
For whatever you are becoming – some words to think on:
“All things must change to something new, to something strange.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.” ~ William James
“We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves.” ~ Lynn Hall
“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” ~ Carol Burnett
“Things do not change; we change.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy
“It is only the wisest and the stupidest that cannot change.” ~ Confucius
Lessons From a School of Fish
Golden trout at a fish hatchery
I took this image at a fish hatchery in West Virginia – a series of long cold water concrete tanks where baby fish are raised and then released into the trout streams to promote West Virginia’s fishing and tourism industry.
I find the image compelling. I look at it and see a mass of energy: like-minded souls struggling for freedom, slick bodies colliding with each other, sliding over each other, negotiating, bargaining, fighting, oscillating.
When you look in a fish hatchery, you see that fish have personalities. Most of them congregate and swarm, slick masses of never ending activity, but some of them, I like to think of them as the introvert group, strike out on their own and swim in solitary. And some of the more adventurous head to the pumps and jump into the fresh, aerated gushes of water that surges and cycles in.
Where are you in your life, in your work, in your writing, in your dreams right now? Are you swimming slowly alone? Are you slipping and sliding and colliding with the masses, not going anywhere? Are you striking out on your own, aiming and jumping for the freshest, aeriest water – making the dangerous leap that could lead you to a better place, or to a cataclysmic fall?
Where are you?
~Thanks!
Revision
Some words of wisdom to my fellow writers who are in the revising process with me. Thanks, Nights of Passion.
Weekly World News: My Daughter has Mutated into a Snake Monster!
My child mutated into a monster with a snake tail.
Some of you may have seen this already on my Twitter or Facebook, but I thought I’d put it in the blog, as well. My younger daughter brought her stuffed snake toy along with us on our vacation and ended up sleeping with it each night. This is what I saw the first morning – had to take a picture.
This is the kind of thing that can happen when you take an outdoorsy vacation!
Have a great weekend, everybody! Watch out for snakes!
~Thanks!
Song at Sunset
Canaan Valley wildlife area – Sunset
From Walt Whitman’s “Song at Sunset”
Splendor of ended day floating and filling me,
Hour prophetic, hour resuming the past,
Inflating my throat, you divine average,
You earth and life till the last ray gleams I sing.
Open mouth of my soul uttering gladness,
Eyes of my soul seeing perfection,
Natural life of me faithfully praising things,
Corroborating forever the triumph of things . . .
I sing to the last the equalities modern or old,
I sing the endless finales of things,
I say Nature continues, glory continues,
I praise with electric voice,
For I do not see one imperfection in the universe,
And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.
O setting sun! though the time has come,
I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration.
~Thanks, Uncle Walt!
Lindy Point
Lindy Point scenic overlook: Blackwater Falls State Park, Davis, WV
Last week my family and I went to West Virginia and Virginia for an outdoorsy vacation. This view was my favorite from the trip. Of course, the picture doesn’t do the real view any justice at all. We hiked down the trail and suddenly emerged to a green canyon that seemed never-ending. The wind blew our hair, and hawks were soaring around the mountaintops. I have no idea how many counties could be seen into the distance.
Stay humble, my friends.
~Thanks!
