The catch phrase in writing these days is “do the work,” which is good advice, but I think I like Ray Bradbury’s take on it better. He was giving a speech in 2001 and said write what gives you joy and then it will never be work. While that is true, I must also point…
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The Next Step
I love maps, especially when I am going on a trip. I love to look at all the possible routes, and then highlight the way I want to go with a highlighter, old school or electronic. I like to decide where I am going to eat along the way or any stops I want to…
Gift Giving God’s Way
I like to paint. Give me an empty room with clean blank walls, taped off and ready to paint, and I am itching for a roller so that I can get started. I love to see fresh color transforming walls into something fresh and clean until the whole room is new. However, I don’t like…
While You Wait…
I was putting the finishing touches on an article about waiting on the Lord when my own words came back to haunt me. I was discussing Psalms 27:13-14, and one of my points was that God often has us wait for an answer to prayer because we need to prepare to receive it. I once…
Stay
Probably one of the hardest tricks to teach any animal is “stay.” With cats it is nearly an impossible command to teach because they are independent and stubborn. To stay means to wait for something. When Goldie was young, he finally figured out that if he waited patiently, when I finished with my cereal, I…
Letting Go
Sometimes more is not better. At one point in time I had four part-time jobs. I had a steady job that I worked 4 days a week, plus another job working in a friend’s shop on Saturdays and some afternoons after my regular job. Then, I also taught English at an online university on…
What do you see?
Sometimes I like to make a game of cooking something with just what’s left in the pantry. Sometimes it is for fun, sometimes it is because I’m too lazy to go to the store, and sometimes it is purely from necessity. Trying to find an appetizing meal out of random ingredients can put your creativity…
An Old Song
I was asked to sing the special music for my church’s Facebook live service this week, which actually makes me more nervous than singing in front of people. So, I was running song titles through my head trying to figure out what to sing. I wanted something that would speak peace to the hearts of…
Joy in the Morning
Young Man walked across me slowly and intentionally, making sure each paw poked my ribs or elbow with precise accuracy. He was fulfilling his self-imposed job of waking me up; however, his internal alarm clock was an hour or two off, so I tried to ignore him. He is not one to be ignored and…
A Time Such as This
It was Friday after Goldie, my Maine Coon of 13 years, had to be put down because of a brain tumor. My other cat, Meep, seemed to feel as out of sorts as I did. Our constant companion was gone. What were we supposed to do now? I decided that both of us needed a…