This is the second of a series on my meditations of scripture during a recent personal retreat. Today’s passage: 1 Kings 19:11-12: The still, small voice of God. 1. “Go stand on the mountain” was a command to take action; GO! Stand alone, exposed and vulnerable; wait on the Lord to come to you. You’re in His ...
The Best Gift is a Sacrifice
This post is the first of a series sharing insights that I encountered about various scriptures on a personal spiritual retreat I enjoyed this summer while all alone for a week in our remote Smoky Mt. cabin. (If you’ve never invested yourself in a spiritual retreat, I HIGHLY recommend it!) My technique was to take one passage per day, ...
Stress Happens
Such a marveous weekend! Crazy busy, but marvelous nonetheless. That’s not to say there weren’t glitches, but hey, all’s well that ends well, right? I’ve come to realize that stress happens no matter how well thought out or planned-to-the-hilt an event is. I co-directed the Florida Inspirational Writers Retreat at Cedarkirk in Lithia on Saturday, ...
Picky, Picky
For lack of table space, I laid out all the fixings for eight gift baskets on the floor of my office … a cute little scarecrow for each, flavored tea bags, floral stationery, various writing supplies, and a ceramic fall mug filled with chocolate Kisses, Godiva gems, Baby Ruths, Nestle Crunches, Butterfingers, Dove dark chocolate-caramel ...
Come As You Are
I’d just finished pouring a cup of water over my head and another down my shirt after sweating out two sets of singles in 93 degree heat. Sounds messy, I know, but us diehard tennis players who stubbornly insist on playing through central Florida summers do it often to prevent heatstroke. If you’re already slathered ...
Now I get it.
As a writing late bloomer (I started writing professionally at age 45), it never ceases to amaze me how many people think they can just jump in and write a book without doing their homework. I spent three years researching, writing articles, attending writing conferences and consuming every industry how-to I could get my hands ...
An Unexpected Twist in Events
I just returned from two weeks in a mt cabin enjoying the hummingbirds, little brown field bunnies, chipmonks, and 60 degree mornings. It was a very beneficial time of prayer, communion with my Creator within the beauty of His creation, contemplation, study, writing, and spiritual renewal. Oh, did I mention near-death? Twice within the same ...
Living by Hope
This is a good week despite marathon work days and lack of sleep. I received my advance for the 2-book deal offered me by Barbour Books a few months ago. Yay! There’s just something about holding that check in your hand that affirms your call to write and swells your heart with gratitude more than ...
Playing Chicken with a Duck
As I was driving down a narrow, seldom traveled back road today, late as usual, I spied something moving in the road ahead. Partially obscured by tree shadows, it wasn’t until I was nearly upon it that I recognized the object in my path as a fat black and white duck waddling toward me down ...
Balancing Act
A literary agent’s blog I follow has been running a series on finding the right balance between accepting criticism and praise (for writers). A thought-provoking conundrum for real life, too, don’t you think? Most of us feel as though we get much more criticism than praise, or at least we remember the criticism more clearly ...