Faith of the Heart

Hi all:  

It's been a hot minute since I posted here.  I am still writing.  It's been about a week since I turned in the last work for Poodle Doodle Press. I worked on some little books with them. Fun experience. I am speaking at the All Y'all Texas Regional Conference  on May 4 and 5. I am going to share Tips and Tricks from a 30-year children's content creator journey, and I will lead a 3-hour intensive about Picture Books: From Dream to Reality (This is going to be work, y'all!). Then I will breathe for three weeks and TEENSPublish begins. This is a publishing program for teens(duh), and this is year 10 of the best thing in my writer's life. I cannot express how much joy these young writers have brought to me. 

The world continues to be different from what I imagine it to be, and I have no idea how to fix the problems. I try to be curious and listen, which seems to help.  

When it comes to writing, I have come to think of myself as having a Townes Van Zandt vibe in children's books (off-the-beaten-path, mucked-up mental health issues, overlooked genius) or like a blackbird singing in the dead of night. Who knows? I love to read and create. The moment when I know I shared what I meant to--it's the best. Add to that my love to mentor others. People are part of me. I love to see folks learn and find success--that inward knowing that they have found a little more of their voice. Joy! Selah. 

I ache in my bones to connect with readers. It's like having a limp you can't fix. It's part of you. I'm not sure that my journey has amounted to a hill of beans, but I'm not sure the whole of the human race has amounted to a hill of beans either.  You get the perspective that you are on a tiny blue dot in a massive universe, and it lowers the high places and raises up the low pretty quick. I limp forward and ache in my bones. Maybe something I say will light up someone's heart, open their eyes, and give them perspective. Faith of the heart keeps me steady.

I've been thinking about poetry. It runs through us all. Here is a little blessing for you. 

May words fall gently from your dreams like spring rain. May words rush out of your heart like rain from a thunderstorm. May words rage from your soul like a tornado reshaping the world.  May you not stop until the stars refuse to shine. May your words echo for a thousand generations. 

Doodle for your heart. A little wren. 

Tune for your soul!

Faith of the Heart by Rod Stewart 

Gifts: Hope and a Future

Hi folks,

I'm continuing my series called Gifts.  In the Bible, in the book of Jeremiah, there is a startling prophesy that so resonates with me. A holy people have been sent into exile for seventy years, and they really need to know what is coming to put up with this long exile.

The Lord spoke to his people through Jeremiah.  He sent encouragement. I don't know if you have ever read something that you felt was speaking to your situation and your life.  I feel that about these words in Jeremiah.  This is what I hear.

Your writing life isn't where you want it to be right now, but I am the one who brought you to this place. Don't despair. I want you to keep writing and keep helping other writers. Enjoy any small success that comes your way. And also, the things you learned back when you were in the thick of it, I want you to think about those things. Let your creative self prosper and don't complain that you don't have a place to share a voice, that you don't even know how to get there. That's a waste of your time.

Don't keep on taking on projects that aren't your vision. Those things are just wasting your time. You have to keep waiting and that might be for a very long time.  But I've got a plan and I'm going to put your writing life back together. I have plans for you, plans to help you write brilliant stories, plans to give you a hope and a future. Be patient. Wait for it. The good days are ahead. 

Hope this stirs you up like it does me. I hope that these words speak to your situation and your life. I hope those words help you stay on the path. I am so glad we are journeying together. 

Here is the doodle. 

Here is a quote for your pocket. 

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. William Shakespeare. 

Gifts: Prophesy to these dry bones

Hi folks, ah, the holidays, and of course, I'm running a little behind. This month I'm offering a little series I called Gifts. This will be short and sweet. There is a story in the Bible in the book of Ezekiel. This my retelling. Here how it starts. The Lord takes Ezekiel to valley of dry bones and asks him if the bones can live.

Ezekiel answers, "Lord only knows."

The Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones.

(We don't prophesy in these days, and I sure do feel left out. The idea of a prophesy is to let someone know what is coming in the future. If you are a writer, you might understand this more than most.)

Back to the story. Ezekiel shouted to those bones."You dead bones, this is the Lord talking and not me -- I'm sending breath in you. And you will come alive. I'll put tendons, and flesh, and skin on you. I'll say it again, I'm putting breath in you, and will be alive. And the whole world will know I am the Lord!"

After that there was a noise. Bones rattled! They snapped together. Then came the tendons, and flesh and the skin. But instead of folks, there was a pile of dead bodies.

The Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy again. "Wind from the four corner of the Earth come into these dead bodies and make them live." And the wind came and a mighty army sprung up, rearing for a fight.

Then the Lord told Ezekiel what it all meant. "Those bones are my people.They have lost hope. They think they are dead.  I'm going to make them alive and I'm going to give them the little corner they are hankering for. Let them know I'm doing this because that's the way I am."

To wrap this up, if you feel like an old pile of dead bones, and you are wondering if you will ever get a chance to snap together and march out there and take your corner.  Remember this story. Wait for the wind.

I will be back next week with another of the Gifts series.

Here is a doodle.  "The sun, Moon, and the stars"

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. Marie Curie