Monday, May 13, 2013

Balance

Last week the temperatures here ran in the 80's. Although that is not too hot, by afternoon our little mobile home was a sauna. I did my best to cool the place with open windows and fans. I was holding the fort until it was time to cook dinner. Amid the scent of frying burgers and the heat from the stove, all my cooling progress was lost.

Today began with a brisk breeze coming in our windows and an overcast sky, a promise of a cooler day. Just when I think I will have to resign myself to living in the heat, a cool day comes to freshen the land and my spirits.

Thats's when I thought of balance. My boyfriend tells me, "No one can be bad all the time, and no one can be good all the time. Therefore, perfection is not being a certain way all the time but rather being balanced. Balance is perfection." I remembered his wise words this morning when I saw even nature follows the pull of balance.

Today I meditate on:
When my life is following a pattern I do not like, relax and let the gravitational pull of balance make things right again. Open my mind and heart to opportunities that will lead me back to a balanced life. Don't obsess about being perfectly balanced. Only an inanimate object can maintain perfect balance, but I am very much alive. I celebrate my life and its imperfections, for, together, these imperfections create balance. And balance is perfection.

Monday, May 6, 2013

It's Ok

Have you ever seen the sun reflected off the underside of pine needles? Such small things. Small things that remind you God is here.  

I used to struggle With the thought that God loves me. Having learned that I must work for God's approval, I tried until I realized that I would never reach the standard that was required of me.  It took me the better part of my life to learn that God holds no rules over me.  I am free to choose as I will.  I have learned some of my choices have dire consequences and that most decisions are not a matter of right and wrong but rather an opportunity to learn what I prefer.  

If you are one who is trying to decide what is best for you and have been begging God to show you but there is no answer, perhaps he is trying to tell you that it's ok to choose as you will, to choose what you would prefer. If your decision does not work out, then you have learned something about yourself. You have learned one thing you don't like and are more knowledgeable about making a better choice next time. Perhaps you don't know the choices to make because you don't know yourself.  And if you don't know yourself,  how could you know which choice is best for you?  Therefore, I encourage you to quit praying and start deciding. You'll figure things out in no time. 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

First paid story-I'll Be Home for Christmas

Recently I got paid by a local newspaper for my first story. I am very proud to publish it here for all my out of town friends and family.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas

 Adelle lifted her violin to her chin and pulled the bow across the strings. Her violin squeaked like Suzy when she got her pigtails pulled. Adelle pulled her bow away with a pout.
 “Mrs. Sampson, my violin isn’t working right,” Adelle whined.
 Mrs. Sampson came over and lowered herself to Adelle’s height. “Adelle, there’s nothing wrong with your violin,” she said gently. “I checked it yesterday at practice, remember?”
 “But I think something’s wrong with it today.” Adelle pinched her lips together and looked at Mrs. Sampson with clear blue eyes.
 “Adelle, honey, your violin is just fine. I think,” and she tilted Adelle’s head so she could look right into her eyes, “that there is some other reason you do not want to practice for the Christmas program we’re putting on at Main Street Baptist Church.”
 Adelle looked down at her little white sneakers with the pink shoelaces. She didn’t want to look at Mrs. Sampson because Mrs. Sampson was right. How would she tell her that she didn’t want to play because she was tired of all the nice-looking people sitting there, listening to Adelle and the other orphans playing while they held their children close to their sides with strong protecting arms. And after the concert Adelle would go back to the orphanage and lie alone in her cold little bed with no parent to kiss her goodnight.
 “I just don’t want to play in the concert this year, Mrs. Sampson. I’ve made up my mind,” she said firmly.
 “Ok,” the kind director said. “I think you should play and join in the Christmas celebration. I think you are making a mistake by not doing so, but I will do as you wish this year. You are almost nine and have been playing in the concert for four years. If you would like to sit out this year, you may.”
 “Really?” Adelle was surprised. She had expected a bigger fight than this. But she was relieved to have her way…and a little sad, although she couldn’t say why.

 Over the next few days Adelle sat in the playroom while the rest of the orphans practiced for the concert. But she was so confused. Instead of being happy to be playing toys while the other children were practicing, she grew more and more sad. She sat looking down at Ken and Barbie sitting down to dinner with a little girl Barbie. Even her toys had a family. Suddenly Adelle hit the barbies and sent them sprawling across the floor. With a big pouting lip, she left the playroom to wander the halls until the rest of the kids were done practicing.
 The next day Mrs. Sampson took the children to the park to play. Adelle didn’t feel like playing. She walked along the path lined with trees and benches a little ways away from the other kids. She felt very sad. With her eyes on the ground, she almost ran into a man sitting on one of the benches. He looked a little like Santa but with a long brown winter coat. He smiled at her.
 “Hello there, little miss. You look deep in thought.”
 “Yes sir, I am,” she replied.
 “You wanna talk about it?” His kind, warm face made Adelle feel like she was drinking a cup of hot chocolate. Suddenly, she wanted to tell him everything.
 “I was supposed to be in a Christmas concert, but I didn’t want to play this year. So Mrs. Sampson said I didn’t have to.”
 “It’s sounds like you got what you wanted. Why the sad face?” he asked gently.
 Adelle let out a big sigh and with large sad eyes said, “I don’t know.” Her little brow furrowed in thought, trying to puzzle through her problem.
 “I think there’s something else about the concert you’re not saying…” the man prompted.
 Then with a deep breath Adelle poured out in a fury, “I hate seeing all the parents there with their children, holding them tight. Every year I see them, hoping that one of them with take me home with them. I practice so hard to be the best violin player so that one of them will want me to be their daughter, but every year they just say ‘Good job, little one’ and go home with their families.”

 The man watched her for a few moments. She was so adorable even with her hurt expression and angry eyes. He rubbed his beard with one hand. “Where is this concert of yours, little miss?”
 “At the Main Street Baptist Church.” Her eyes were still clouded with anger.
 “So you’re from Main Street Orphanage then?”
 “Yes sir,” she replied.
 Suddenly, a light came into the old man’s eyes. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up. “Little miss, you need to play in the concert this year.”
 She looked at him sharply. “I don’t want to! And I won’t! Mrs. Sampson said I didn’t have to.”
 “I know what you told me, but you have to play. This year will be different. Christmas is a time for miracles, isn’t it?”
 “Not for me,” she grumped.
 Then he looked her right in the eyes and said, “Let me tell you something, little miss. Your heart is sad because you have been disappointed year after year, but the true heart does not give up believing when the road is tough. It keeps believing because it knows someday its dreams will come true, no matter how difficult the road. Believing brings miracles.”
 Adelle looked at him for a moment, then the frown came back. “Well, that’s not how it works out for me,” and she turned and walked back to her playmates.
 The day of the concert came and Adelle sat apart from the other children as they tuned their violins. When the others filed out onto the stage, Adelle would walk down with Mrs. Sampson and sit on the front row with her. Adelle expected to feel better today since she had a special place beside Mrs. Sampson and all the other kids had to play for the concert, but she felt sad and angry and a little sick in her tummy. She sat twirling a ribbon on her skirt as the violins squeaked around her. Her face felt hot and her heart began pounding. Mrs. Sampson clapped her hands and called everyone’s attention. “Alright children, it’s time to go out on the stage.” The children moved into order. In the shuffle, Mrs. Sampson temporarily forgot about Adelle. As Adelle watched all the other children go, something pulsed in her heart. Her eyes became bright and her breath quickened. She didn’t know why, but suddenly she knew she had to play in the concert. She grabbed her violin out of its case and stepped onto the platform just behind the last child.

 The lights shining on the stage were warm. Two trees were lit, one on either end of the platform. Pine garland looped along the front of the stage with big red bows pinning it up. Excitement thrummed in Adelle’s chest. She lifted her violin to her chin and the sweet melody of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” lifted out of her instrument and floated down on the crowd. She closed her eyes as the music sank into her soul. Next she moved her bow up and down quickly for the enchanting “Carol of the Bells”, one of her favorites. Then smoothly again for “O Come All Ye Faithful.” As she gazed out at the audience she saw the dim figure of an old man with a white beard in the very back of the church. She gasped. It was the man from the park! Her hear felt like it was going to burst, but she couldn’t explain why. She played as she had never played before, the music forming and spinning high into the air before swooping down on the audience and holding them spellbound. Adelle felt happier than she had ever felt in her life. That night as she lay down to sleep, she prayed, “God, even though I didn’t get a family this year, I’m really glad I played in the concert. Thank you for the home I have. Good night.”
 The next morning was Christmas. The orphans traditionally had breakfast before running to open their gifts. It was all they could do to wait. But as Adelle walked into the dining room, Mrs. Sampson came to her and said, “Adelle, come with me to my office for a moment.”
 Adelle wondered if perhaps Mrs. Sampson was going to yell at her for joining in the concert after all. But when they entered the office, a young smiling couple stood there. The man had his arm around his wife and looked very eager to say something.
 “Adelle, this is Mr. and Mrs. Fields. They came to me this morning asking to talk to ‘the magical little girl who played the violin so well.’” Mrs. Sampson paused and Adelle thought she looked as if she was about to cry. Barely able to speak, Mrs. Sampson continued, “They want to know if they can be your new mommy and daddy.”
 Adelle didn’t know what to say. The man leaned down toward her with shining eyes. “My wife’s father told us he met you at the park. He said you would be the perfect little girl for us. You see, we can’t have children, and we’ve been looking for someone special just like you. We just started attending Main Street Baptist Church a month ago and this was our first time at the Christmas concert. You captured our hearts with your violin playing, and when we found out that you wanted badly to be adopted, we just knew we had to give you a home. We know today is Christmas, but we couldn’t wait any longer to come see you. We wanted to give you a home for Christmas this year and make your dream come true.” Mr. Fields paused a moment then whispered, “Will you be our little girl, Adelle?”
 Adelle looked at them both with big tears puddled in her clear blue eyes. “Yes,” she whispered back. And for the first time in her little life, she felt the hugs and kisses of her very own parents.



I would love to hear from you. You can contact me at oneladyofshalott8@yahoo.com or leave a comment at the end of this post.  Also, check out my children’s ebook, Betty Butter, at Smashwords.com or Barnes & Noble.com.


Like Cake Icing

It is April 12, 2013. The scent of spring is full on the bosom of the earth. Sites like Walt Whitman with his scandalous Leaves of Grass scamper through my head. I have only read lines from his volume but the title alone beckons me to indulge in his words, to drink them in, to massage them into my mind like an expensive and aromatic oil. I want to grab a pen, to write a white stack of paper black with gibberish about nature. I want to climb a tree and peer through the branches at the silky budding leaves. Waves of passion wash over me as I take in the blue sky with the scattered rain clouds.

Nature makes me delirious. No cup of wine has ever been this sweet! My mind gropes for words as my hand itches to keep moving my pen along. Visions of timeless writers, heads bent over their desks, consumed with the passion of their art blink through my mind. A door is opening to a world I had all but lost through a painful process called growing up. To grow up and leave the sweet faith of childhood behind should be a punishable crime.

"She sat reading her work from the day to him. He sat still, listening. He did not hear her words, but rather the sound of her voice, for nothing could equal it when she was reading her own work to him. Work filled with descriptions of scented honeysuckle, wisteria and starflowers. He did not really know what any of it meant, but therein did not lie his passion. His formed within the light burning in her eyes and expression as she read and her wild hair tousled about her head, reticent of her scamper through the woods to gather her love-laden descriptions. At this time she had no magazine that would take her works, but rejection had not dimmed the fire of her passion for writing. If she did not write about the buttercups and bluebells, then who would even notice them? For this reason, for love, she must keep on writing. Even if no one ever paid her for her work. She wrote for love's sake, not for money. And somehow nothing else seemed to matter. There were days in the darkness that she doubted. And then you would find her snuggled up in the arm of her love, her feet tucked beneath her, and her head on his shoulder. He would lean his cheek against her wild hair and whisper love and faith back into her. And so life continued for two years until the day she went to the mailbox....

Lily's Book of Flowers

Two tears fell onto the cover of the book she finally held in her hands."

And what made me write all of that just now? I don't know...a delicious hunger for beautiful, intricate, complicated things? For description so lush you can feel like you're taking a bite out of a moist chocolate cake, laden with cool whipped fudge icing, decadent and far too elaborate a flavor for a human tongue. Description that draws you to childhood days of carefree visits to Williamsburg, Virginia where time stands still in the 1800's. Secret seats beneath dark shady vined trellises. A calligrapher hard at work copying a book. A shop displaying parchment paper, books and inkwells.

I run my finger along the icing of this cake, then put it slowly in my mouth. The icing melts. The chocolate floods my senses. I step into another world and I don't think I will come back for some time.