Staring At God

It should surprise none of my readers that I am a verbal person. My college years were spent learning therapeutic communication. My learning style is primarily auditory (which means I rocked at lecture classes). I think in words, not pictures, and certainly not emotions.

I have, at times in my life, been at a loss for words. Generally bad times. The most vivid was the year I spent so angry at God all I could say to Him was The Lord’s Prayer. I said it sullenly, but I said it. I was like those disciples who remained after Jesus’ hard teaching turned the crowds away. “Where else can we go?” they asked. “Only You have the truth.” I don’t like you very much, but You’re all I’ve got, so I better stick close, you big meanie. OK, that part wasn’t in the Bible story, but I’m sure some of them were feeling it.

Inspiring stories optional.

I sat here trying to think of something funny, witty, and at the same time uplifting to blog about. I sat and thought for a long time. I don’t want to write anything boring. And I didn’t want to post another rant…though with the past couple of days I’ve been having that would have been quite easy.

As I thought about these things I came to a sad realization. The only anecdotes or funny stories I know of to tell are ALL rantings or complainings about some dumb or idiotic observation I’ve had about the nature of human beings. Or in some cases, the observation of a specific dumb or idiotic human being.

Warning: Christian

I’m a member of several online writers’ groups, and recently, one of them posed the question, “should Christian books carry a warning label?” To be honest, I cannot for the life of me remember which group or really any of the particulars. I mostly scanned from the sidelines.

The trigger incident involved an author getting a nasty review because he failed to clearly identify his fiction novel as “Christian,” even though three of the tags applied to the novel contained the word “Christian” (I’ll save a rant on the -ehem- silliness of readers for later). The author countered by creating a tongue-in-cheek warning to all that his book might contain material known to incite riots in avowed atheists or something to that nature. Good on him.

The thread bounced around a bit, with some authors being pro-warning and some pro-”undercover Christianity” – as in avoiding any and all trigger words that might cause a Christ-hater to “go off” and stop reading, thus getting some Christianity into the reader by accident, as it were.

Wow. I sound a bit harsh there, don’t I? Guess I have some issues of my own.

I faced this question for the first time when a person I later learned to be an atheist asked me what “Christian fiction” was. He caught me off guard, but I answered, and, I think pretty well for me, a book that expresses a Christian worldview.

I’ll warn you upfront. I’m a Christian. It doesn’t matter what genre I choose to write. My writings will stem from a Christian worldview. Do I mind? No. Will you mind? Maybe. Is that my problem? Absolutely not.

Jesus Himself said the world would hate Him and most people will reject Him. Why should I gritch and moan because they reject me because of Him? I’d rather proclaim Him before men and be cursed by them than be denied by Him before God.

I do have to point out the irony of an atheist complaining about Christian fantasy, though. Isn’t that where all Christian writing should be? In the same genre with false, mythological beings like Ra and Gaia and Zeus? I would think atheists would be thrilled to have Christians writing fantasy. We’re doing half their work for them.

I guess there’s no pleasing some people.

Where Did The Time Go?

Look at those pudgy cheeks and milky skin. This picture brings a flood of warm tears and a wave of fun remember-whens. Flashes of naked butts slip-sliding across the kitchen floor with butter and snorts of laughter as they told me a pound of butter tickled if you greased your skin with it. They were making pancakes, after all. Or the smell of nasty when I came home from work to find my husband soaking every toy they had in bleach water in the tub because Nick took off his diaper and the two boys painted the room and each other  with it. The little spot on Nick’s lips that was the only clear place because his brother also gave him a poo-poo facial. Or how Cilla played with the boys by giving them a chunk-chick-slam (Her dive bombing them from any furniture while the boys were on the floor watching television or playing with toys.

It seems like yesterday.

Oh, God, where did the time go?

No More Tears for Angel

Did you really think I wouldn’t use this image again?

“I think I’m done with writing.” I typed those words a couple of days ago. They are not a quote from a work in progress. Not something one of my characters said. They are the words I said to a friend of mine–right before I sat down and had a good, long cry.

I’ve been going through the editors’ comments on my WIP, Seeking Unseen, the sequel to Finding Angel. No, they’re not mean comments. Nor are they off the mark. But as I read them I began to wonder if they were worth addressing. Whether the manuscript was worth the work. Whether writing in general is worth the work.

Because it IS work.

Refocus

Past

I twirl my hair between my fingers and giggle at your words. So clever and handsome.

I look at you and see life stretched before me with infinite wonder and possibility. You look back and my breath hitches when the side of your mouth lifts ever so slightly. Do you see the same when you look at me? Love is alive.

Away too long, love. Why haven’t you called? The babies are crying and so am I.

For My Little Beastie

My "Beastie" is actually the most beautiful Beauty in the world!!!!

This week has been hard for me. I had to take my daughter, whom I affectionately call Beastie 2 (my son is Beastie 1), to the orthopedist the other day. She was diagnosed with scoliosis nearly a year ago. She was only eight years old, now nine. If you are not familiar with scoliosis, it is a side to side curvature of the spine and it normally doesn’t show up until around ages ten to fourteen.

I know a lot about scoliosis because I have it, too. Mine was found when I was twelve, though, considerably older than Beastie 2. To stop the curve from progressing, I was put into a back brace. The other day, we found out Beastie 2 will be braced also. I was praying hers would not be progressive, of course. But I am thankful for two things: we caught it early, and the braces these days are nothing like what I had to wear! Mine was like a heavy plastic and metal cage. These days, they are a lightweight, plastic-foam thing, with no metal, that’s completely contoured. Think Suburban vs. SmartCar.

Anyway, the whole experience has had me feeling nostalgic, and more than a bit distracted, so trying to come up with a new post  for today just didn’t work. Instead, I’m sharing with you MY story that was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just for Preteens.

Multiverses for Dummies…like me.

As I’m sitting here simultaneously wondering what I need to write about for my blog post and brainstorming what I need to write next on my research paper, it occurred to me that maybe I should just write something about what I’m writing about so I don’t have to spend time writing one thing when I should be writing the next, in actuality I’ll be writing on the same thing albeit not in the same place.

Confused? Well, I am a little. You see, my research paper is on the Multiverse Theory and God. And if you think that sounds simple enough, I also have to discuss within the topic such things as Big Bang Cosmology, Chaos Theory, String Theory, and Anthropic Fine Tuning. I won’t bore you with that stuff. Relieved, right?

But I thought I could share sort of a “for dummies” version of what Multiverse Theory is all about. It’s the stuff movies and good fiction is made of, but some physicists are calling it science. You’ve seen it at work in Doctor Who, Sliders, The Chronicles of Narnia, and even versions of it found its way into Back to the Future, V is for Vendetta, and The Butterfly Effect. There are countless others, I’m sure. Stick around till the end for something really cool on this point.

Dairy-Free

When Keven first presented the idea of the New Authors’ Fellowship alumni starting our own separate blog, I was totally on board. And then he proposed the title. I admit, I did like it, but my first thought was, “Cheesecake? Unfair! I can’t EAT cheesecake.” (Before you ask, I’ll go ahead and answer–no, I’m not “lactose intolerant.” I have a dairy allergy. No, I won’t stop breathing or anything, but I will get a killer sinus headache.)

My response to him: “Fine, I’ll be the ‘dairy-free’ person on the blog!”

Oddly, my little joke is actually quite appropriate.