I love receiving Christmas letters each year — I read them — some, many times. I read them to the family and take the enclosed photos and hang them on our kitchen cabinet doors. I love the letters for so many reasons — maybe for as many different reasons as the number of letters received each year. I often wonder how many drafts some writers attempted before the resulting letter was complete. I say this because I attempted to write our Christmas letter no less than a dozen times this year. Each draft wordier (no surprise there!) than the previous…
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You know when you’re sitting in you Doctor’s office waiting room and you sort of mindlessly thumb through the magazines on the coffee table and you see things you didn’t even know existed or you see a half torn page and wonder what it was you missed? Do you log into Facebook or browse Google News and see offers or Web ‘gadgets’ you don’t even understand? Trend watchers, social engineers, movers and shakers all look for them: the latest cool stuff — the next big thing. I remember when I first started blogging… I was keeping a journal of sorts…
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I just came across a little note in my basket… and thought, this is just what I’m needing! The reminder to have a Mary heart and a Martha mind was the gist of the note. I’m personalizing it a bit to be: Mary thoughts and Martha hands. I must be in the Word and in song in order that my heart and mind are stayed on heavenly things. I must be in the Word and in song that my hands and plans are stayed on heavenly things — working at or accomplishing good things. This is such a needful reminder…
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A dear friend recently wrote a letter regarding losing vision and had several thoughts regarding the danger of lacking vision, and the importance of having vision or purpose. I’ve mulled that over. And over. I empathized and I actually sort of felt sick at the thought, the tragic thought of losing vision. And then it struck me (but it wasn’t the first time) that I’ve lost vision. If you’ve never “lost vision” before, then it’s probably hard to understand how someone could go along, have a great track to run on and then suddenly lose vision. But it happens. And…
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In my drafts bucket I have a whole bunch of half-begun and mostly unfinished drafts of letters and blog entries I intended to send or post. Many never get finished. I either don’t have time or I don’t have enough of the “rest of the story” in my head to complete the work. Usually, it’s the former, not the latter. So, time takes time. I’ve said this to myself, to my children, to other women… I’ve thought this many, many times. I’ve usually thought this as a self-reminder when a situation seems to be unchanging or a problem seem to…
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It’s Independence Day here in the States. Independence Day… the day we celebrate many things – Freedom, Family, Life, Independence — not being dependent on another country for our country’s governance or control — in this case, independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. All over the valley, though nightfall is many hours away, the booms are sounding and fireworks dot the sky. The humming of the Star Spangled Banner seems to be in the breeze. We have an old flag — each stripe pieced with heavy, cotton thread and each year I hang it from the flagpole on our…
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Do you occasionally emerge from a situation — a conversation, a class, a conference… an experience — and say or think: Well, that was sure a waste of time or that was a wasted opportunity or that was a waste of money. We do say or think those things, from time to time, don’t we? What keeps us from saying that was a waste — or — what would keep up from saying or feeling that was a waste? As I’ve shared with you many times, I write a lot… I write in journals, I write on scraps of paper,…
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I just heard that phrase. It has nothing to do with anything in particular, but I was just thinking: doesn’t just hearing that phrase lift your thoughts? Imagine if you were to be shopping for groceries this afternoon and you were to overhear someone in the next aisle say: Things are looking up! You’d probably smile and think, my-o-my… I wonder what’s happening with her? What if your husband were to walk through the back doorway this evening and exclaim, Honey! Things are looking up! Or, consider hearing your son strolling into the kitchen announcing: Ma, things are looking up!…
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I know. I’d probably grimace if one of my kids started an essay: “Stuff’s going to work out.” But, it’s on my mind today: stuff — and how it works out. But I want to begin by saying: stuff’s probably not going to work out how you thought it would — or even how you hoped it would — but, truly, in the end, stuff’s going to work out. Last year, the year you’ve heard me describe as the most sorrowful year of my life, I heard a song… it was one of two songs that so resonated with me…
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It seems that at some point in the life of every blog there’s a post about blogs in general, about bloggers and why they blog or, specifically, a post about that blog and its purpose. I don’t know why we do it, but every now and then we do it – we feel the need to amplify our purpose or we feel compelled to justify or defend our writing. I love words. I love writing. I write all the time. I occasionally post a few of the things I’ve written. I have journals full of notes. I have folders full…