God is Making Himself at Home - Last Random Journal Day of 2013!

Here it is, the last RANDOM JOURNAL DAY of 2013!! In honor of the final RJD of the year.....I did not cheat. I usually will honestly open an old journal and write about the randomly chosen page. But every once in a while I cheat and wander around in the journals until something grabs me. (Hey, I created this little writing challenge, so I figure I can cheat if I want to.) 

But today I did not cheat and I do not even know where this post will go at this point. A few minutes ago I picked an old journal from my collection and it opened to a page with only one little longish sentence written in the corner. 

"The process of transformation isn't always fun or comfortable, but to recognize that God is making Himself at home in us, brings a deep and sturdy joy." me

I don't remember what was going on at the time this was written, but I do recall being very intentional about using that word "sturdy" to describe the inner joy I felt. I am not a fan of change. Everyone around me can vouch for that. And the word "transformation" is just another word for big changes happening on the inside. The kind of changes that can be painful and confusing.

If our hearts and therefore, our thoughts, are being rearranged into new and unfamiliar patterns, it can be scary and unwelcome. You get a concept or belief all figured out and BAM! it gets switched up! A life situation is dropped unexpectedly in your lap and all is turned upside down. Jobs, relationships, finances, physical challenges, all are subject to change without notice. Transformation can be ugly, painful and just ick.

BUT, if we can see the hand of God....NOT that He caused the negative thing....but that He is finding a way to make Himself at home in us. In spite of the tough situation. He may be needing to move the furniture around in our hearts to help us re-calibrate. To help us see the new path before us.

If we can see that God wants to be at home in us....to DWELL in us...not just visit. If we can grab that truth. What a difference in our view of the uncomfortable process! When I see that God is making Himself at home in me, I can embrace the changes with joy.

Not the giddy, goofy joy that comes and goes with the wind. This would be a "deep and sturdy" joy. I love that word sturdy here. It illustrates the stable, strong and unmovable. A JOY that can handle the rough weather and the confusing questions flying all around it.

I believe that I randomly opened to this self-quote for a reason. A reminder from my God that He knows. He knows me, lives in me and is at home in me. He is once again telling all of us that we are loved beyond measure. Loved enough to not let us become stagnate and unchangeable. My friends, God is in the transformation business. Our task and pleasure is to ask Him about the situations around us. What are they for? What can I learn about Him in them? What is His role in them? Who does He want to be for me, while I walk through them?

And underneath it all there can be a "deep and sturdy joy" because you know you are loved. By The One who loves best.

Merry Christmas!

***

Click on this picture to go read other Random Journal writers! And why not grab your journals and add your blog post too? 

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Sneak Peak

Hi Friends, today I am giving you another sneak peak at my current Work In Progress.(No title so far.) If you are in the mood for a longer than normal post, put on some nice music, get comfy and enjoy a bit of fantasy with God as the main character. Though maybe I should call it true-fantasy because it really happened.

At the beginning of November I told you that I would be concentrating on building the word-count of my short inspirational book in progress. I am now 77% done with a first draft and hope to complete it by the middle of December. A first draft is a messy gathering of all that I want in my book. Compiling and expanding former blog posts and articles written over the years. Finding and clarifying the common thread that will speak to readers and give them a glimpse of the ridiculous magnitude of God's love for them. 

In mid-January I will begin to edit and clean up the first draft and will go on from there to who knows where. I have no publishing deal or publishing plan at all. When I looked at that aspect too much, it caused me to freeze up and make very little progress on the book. So for now, I just write. 

A sneak peak of today's work...

"Have you ever seen a picture with your heart rather than your eyes? It is one of those ethereal experiences that include all of your senses. Aroma, texture, temperature and mood are almost more real than reality. The moment is more filled with substance than the floor beneath your feet or the people all around you. 

I was enjoying a sweet time of worship with my friends on a typical Sunday morning. We were gathered around the front platform of our church sanctuary and the band was playing a favorite song that included the words,

“Dance with me, oh Lover of my soul…”

I close my eyes and gently sway with the beautiful live music. The scene in my mind began with me dancing with Jesus. It is one of my favorite scenes to imagine during my times of worshiping Him. I love to “go there”, and this time it was delightful as we moved together with the soft music in the sanctuary.

But without warning the scene suddenly changes without me deciding to change it. I saw, felt, sensed and heard God the Father step up and tap Jesus on the shoulder and whisper,

“She’s mine.”

Now don’t write me off just yet. This may be hard to believe, I know. Please stay with me, because it gets so beautiful.

God took me in His great arms and leaned over me with a size I am struggling to describe for you. I felt so small, but so precious and cherished. I hope it does not mess up the picture, it will not do it justice, but the feeling and size reminded me of watching Beauty and the Beast in the animated movie when they had their glorious ballroom dance. He was so enthralled with Beauty and he leaned over her with such care and gentleness.

But even more impacting than His great bulk, were His eyes. In my heart-picture, the eyes of my Father God were liquid with mighty love for me. He simply could not take His eyes off of me. I was his protected prize. He was drinking me in and delighting in dancing with me!

I was totally comfortable with Him as we glided all over the ballroom of my heart. A daughter who is adored by her father has a grace and confidence that cannot be faked or learned. My Father God’s dance with me instilled a new sense of who I am. It was as if He was building up my inner strength and confidence as we swirled the room together. I am His daughter. His beloved daughter. He loves me completely and is proud to be dancing with me in His arms.

I cannot adequately describe this deep experience to you here with these puny words. When I got home that day I spent nearly an hour searching online for a picture of ballroom dancers that carried what I felt. No drawing or photo caught what I saw and experienced. But isn’t that the wonderful beauty of our own individual relationships with God? What I saw is all mine. What you see, feel and hear when alone or even in a crowd with God, is all yours.

A.W. Tozer said, “An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself so each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of himself as fully as if there were no other.”

I am God’s beloved daughter. You are God’s beloved child. Can you take some time to close your eyes and dance with Him as His dearly beloved child? His arms encircle you completely. God has surrounded you with Himself. He is your mighty protector and gentle benefactor. You sway together in a sweet slow dance that makes you feel safe and more secure than at any other moment in your life. Let Him hold you and convince you of His love. It is real. You may be imagining the dance, but you are not imagining his love for you. It is real. It is more real than the room you are in right now.

Dear Father, thank you for our dance. The memory still brings me a smile and a sigh of pleasure. I ask you today to share our dance with those who want to be held by you. Allow this dear reader to rest back into your powerful arms and know they are safe, safer than they have ever been. Thank you God. Thank you for the dance."

It is rough and at the beginning stages, but it is fun to share what I've been up to all along the way. Thanks for reading!

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That Time I'm Pretty Sure I Saved a Life, Maybe Even Two....

I don't think I have ever talked about this odd little (maybe NOT so little) incident that happened in my life, right here in this neighborhood, one November exactly 13 years ago. 

I was trying to enjoy sleeping in one morning, but felt strangely drawn to get up. So (according to my trusty journal) I found myself cuddled in a big blanket on my living-room couch at 6am asking God what this was all about. I felt that He wanted to tell me something, to give me some kind of instruction. This was not normal for me, I am not a "got a message from God" kinda person...normally.

The words scribbled in my journal that morning include, "What is it Lord? You are preparing me for something and I want to be ready to obey. But what? "

I closed my eyes and pictured the poor people in my small town. Interesting. Was I supposed to do something for them? I had been reading the book of James in the Bible and was humbled by the instructions to assist the poor, the children and the widows. 

A direct quote from my journal asks, "A children's outreach? Do you want me to help the families through the kids, Lord? Help me God, I'm such a chicken at this stuff. Can I be strong enough to step outside my house and really touch these that need you so much? I am more afraid of doing nothing!"

That day I thought that maybe I should go take a walk and pray for the poor neighborhoods in my town, maybe it would give me some ideas. But I let the plan slip from my mind and the day passed like any other day. And the next and the next went by.

Then four days later the idea to walk and pray was overwhelming, so I got my tennis shoes on and off I went, wondering what in the world was going on. 

Just one block away, I was crossing from one corner to the next when I saw two tiny kids. One was on a trike and the other on a scooter. They were maybe 2 or 3 years old. They were heading as fast as their little legs could take them, toward the main road on the other side of me. They were laughing and looking behind them at a very upset 7 year old who was yelling for them to stop. They thought it was all very funny.

A white van was approaching all of us and I do not think those kids planned to stop, so I grabbed one kid as he headed in front of the van and I remember wondering if the van was going to hit me. Seeing me grab one kid, shocked the other one and she stopped and stared at me. The white van stopped too and then the driver shook her head in relief and continued down the road. 

The older child came up yelling at the little ones to go back to the house and I turned the scooter-kid in the right direction and continued on my walk to the next block. 

It all happened so fast that it took me a few minutes to realize what had just occurred. It sunk in that I may have just saved a couple of lives! My next thought was that "Poor God", had to begin talking to me about something on a Tuesday in order to get me in the right place on a Friday. 

But today, as I looked at my journal account of this week-long conversation with God, I am chuckling at my "listening skills". 

Yes, I was "hearing" God. But I was mistakenly translating his words into "christianese" or "church-speak", when He was speaking very LITERALLY. Go back up a few paragraphs and look at the underlined words. That is what I was hearing, but I translated them into my version, my church-life version of the words. I was picturing some kind of "outreach event" or ministry that "touched" lives. 


  "outreach...help...step outside my house.....really touch."


This is hilarious to me. God had given me very specific directions and yes, I obeyed them at the right time and the correct place. But I had no idea that I was doing exactly what He wanted! I wonder if God often finds Himself telling us to do something very specific and we gum it all up with our complicated symbolism and church-speak instead of just doing what He said to do. 

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Sunday Surprise

Layla cannot understand why I squealed with surprise and delight when Hubs walked into the house this morning with this. A big fat Sunday paper! FREE! 

I read the news for FREE every day on my trusty Mac, so what is the big deal about a thick folded messy newspaper on the driveway? 

Hubs cracked up at my reaction because he knows me well. He knows how much I used to look forward to a Sunday afternoon spent reading every single page (except sports section) of the weekend newspaper. 

My hands ended up inky and I usually had to grab scissors to save some "important" article or coupon. I loved columnists like Erma Bombeck, Herb Cain and Dave Barry. I wanted to be them. 

One year my favorite birthday present was a weekend subscription to the paper! So silly, but Hubs knew exactly what I wanted. So instead of stopping at a news-stand after church every Sunday, I would awake to the big fat roll of paper on my driveway! Bliss! Haha!

This morning while eating the yummy scrambled egg burrito wrap that he made before going to work, Hubs and I sat in the sun and I read the front page. A fascinating story of the new version of "communes" happening in San Francisco in recent years. There are at least half a dozen luxury mansions being bought up by groups of young tech entrepreneurs and they are sharing costs and chores in order to live in a more creative and beautiful environment. Love it! Kind of like the reality show houses but for real. So interesting!

The rest of the paper is being saved for later this afternoon after I get some other work done. It will be my reward and treat to myself. So silly, but silly is good for us, don't you think? 

Small pleasures need to be grabbed, enjoyed and noticed in our lives. When the little pleasures are not recognized and noted, they turn into a need and the delight is lost. Remember when stopping into a Starbucks was a small pleasure and a treat? After time it morphed into a need, a must-have instead of a fun treat. It still tastes wonderful, but did you lose the delight somewhere along the line?

November is the month for remembering the large and small delights in our lives. Being thankful will change an ordinary day into a lovely one. But it takes notice, it requires paying attention. What are some of your small pleasures? I'd love to know, really....

Thankful for you,
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Why I am Blogging Less

Hi Friends, My freelance writing is keeping me busy, too busy to post a blog here as often as I used to. I am also trying to add to my WIP every day this month until I have a proper manuscript to edit and then send out. I'm doing the writing life that I wanted and it's not as fun as I fantasized about, but hey, it's happening. Kinda. 

So my Dears, my RCL readers who are always encouraging and inspiring, here's where I've been...

What If I'm Not Thankful this Thanksgiving? - Blogging once a week for Humpty Dumpty Parent.com

Life With Layla - If Dogs Could Talk - Blogging twice a week for The Pet Supply Company

Mister Spunky and his friends -  Blogging once a month for Mister Spunky & Friends

Thankful For The Love Of My Life - Once a month Contributing Writer for 5 Minutes for Faith.com

In between these assignments I am applying for more writing jobs and of course feeding my critical Facebook addiction. It's a disease, not my fault I tell you. It is also where I have fun with friends, family and......here I am justifying myself.....time to say good-bye and hit Publish, right? 

Love you, thanks for reading...and commenting! (If you were to read me on my assigned websites and commented there, it would give me mucho pleasure too!)

Hit Publish, sooz, you are starting to beg...not good at all.

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There Is No Velvet Rope

Happy Sunday Morning!

Today's post will be short and sweet. I am following an urge and we will see where it leads us. 

Have you ever talked back to movie characters? You know you do. "Don't go outside to see what the noise is, you idiot!"...."Just tell the guy you really love him already!"... Or "Okay tell us who is being eliminated, right now!" 

I often wanted to talk back to the desperate people in old movies who decided to talk to God about their situation. I remember an old western where an elderly man gets down on his knees and opens his prayer with these words,

 "Dear God, Henry Johnson here. I'm not a church goer and it's been a long time since we talked, but..."

Variations of that apologetic and introductory prayer have been repeated in many movies and books. Even sweet, good-hearted George Bailey felt the need to provide a forward to his prayer......

My urging this morning is to remind you that with God there is no velvet rope. He is not out of our reach. Ignoring God for 20 years or for 2 days will not change our access to Him. He is not waiting behind a "DO NOT ENTER" sign until we get ourselves prettied up for Him. 

God is not a museum display. There are no "DO NOT TOUCH" or "TAKE A TICKET" signs around His presence. The velvet rope is on the ground. We can step over it now. He disconnected it because He wants us close to Him. God likes our voices, our tears and our laughter. He enjoys us....and not in a condescending got-to-put-up-with-these-people kind of way. 

There IS NO VELVET ROPE.

Forgiveness for whatever is already given. You do not have to do anything but accept it. Too simple? Yep, it is too simple. We want to make penance and feel we DESERVE His attention. But the velvet rope is down. He already did what needed to be done to give us access to Him. It is done. 

He knows your name, your laugh and your quirks. Go ahead and talk to Him, He is listening .....with a smile on His face. 

__________

I am honored to be included in a special Thanksgiving Daily theme over at 5 Minutes for Faith today! 

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My New Theme Song!

Can you read that last line on this bedside tablet of mine? I keep paper and pen with me at all times, even during the night, because ideas and inspiration come and go as quickly as sleep comes and goes. 

The first few lines were scribbled weeks before that last line and they all reveal the elusive confidence that sweeps in with one wind and out with the next. In that last line on my butterfly tablet I wrote that..."I have no right to write about conquering fear." 

Our own thoughts can lie to us. We hear the voices in our heads and can choose which to believe and which to ignore. It would be...and is...so easy to listen to the negative voices. If I decide to agree with that last line, then I am free to stop trying. Free to say "never mind, I have nothing to offer anyone so I might as well shut up now." Free to sit in my own failure and blame everyone else for my choice. 

BUT, He makes me brave. My God, who I do not understand, do not always listen to and makes me crazy sometimes...my God loves me. It makes no sense, but He loves me and that big, crazy overwhelming love makes me brave. I have attempted to describe His waves of love before. My written words always left me with a sense of disappointment that I could not conjure up for you the true sensation of being tumbled over by His love. 

But this song...Oh this one says it all!

My new theme song!...BRAVE 

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Write NonFiction In November - WNFIN

....."I had created that first blog to get outside the walls of the church, but the women in the church (ministry wife bloggers) were asking for more help, more encouragement. I believe that God set me up a bit. I needed to expand my worldview outside the church, in order to see the part of the world that He knew I could speak into.

God loves his church. I love His church. God sees her pain and her hunger to please Him. He loves these women and I believe that His heart is broken as He hears them worry and stress about being good enough for Him. God, the Father did not set up the strict and confining rules that most churchwomen are working so hard to obey. His acceptance and delight in each of us is not based on how many chapters of His word we have read that day. It is not measured by how early we got up to spend time in prayer that morning.

The truth that we are loved and accepted by God is a simple one. But it is a hard one to believe. There is something about typical church life that slowly and subtly convinces us that He wants more from us than we can give. That we can never be good enough, work hard enough or give sacrificially enough to please Him. But those are lies. God loved you at first sight. He loved you enough to call you to Himself when you were running away from Him and living without Him. Why do we think that He loves us less now than when He first saved us?".....

I’m taking the challenge!


   National Nonfiction Writing Month

This month I am being intentional about giving a set amount of time to my WIP each day. (My Work In Progress - A short book that I hope will make the reader more loved on the last page than the first.) Today is only the third day of the month and I have already wanted to give up. But today was a good and productive writing day. 

I still have my freelance clients to keep up with each week and that small income is crucial, so I cannot let those deadlines slide. This is where 'community' can become a beautiful thing. Fiction writers have had a longtime tradition of challenging one another to write huge amounts in the month of November each year in a movement called National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. This year there is a new creation just for us NONfiction writers, Write Nonfiction In November or WNFIN. We register and declare our personal goals on the website and then check in and give or receive encouragement as the month moves along. There are no winners or losers, just a group of people who understand this silly thing you do.

It is only the 3rd day so I don't really know more than one other person in this particular group, but my REAL online writing community has already been established for the last year with a FaceBook Writers Group that I belong to. These people have amazed me with their sensitivity, ridiculous offbeat humor and practical help in the writing life. I have had serious freelance questions answered there and have even added some tips of my own. Thank you Julie, Tonya, Michael and others, you guys crack me up, guilt me and inspire me every day. 

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Out of Limbo-land

We have a plan at last!

Looking like the letter "L" in hubby's size 12 boots. 

We are moving to Texas in spring 2014! To honor this momentous decision, I dug into the back of my closet and put on the only "western" shirt I have and jumped into a pair of my husband's huge cowboy boots and did a little posing for him. He graciously took some pictures for me, and one for himself that I did not know about....because I was facing the OTHER direction. Ahem. 

How do I feel about this new plan for our lives?



Colbert expresses it perfectly.

It has been a veeery long 3 years since we lost our jobs here, and the sense of confusion, loss and limbo have been tough. You have read the crazy ups and downs, complainings and rejoicings along the way as I have blogged my way through this time of transition. Thank you for the encouraging words and reminders to see God's hand in each day. 

If someone had suggested a year ago that we leave our beloved California and move to Texas, my answer would have been a strongly stated "No way!". And to be truthful, the idea was suggested and that was the answer given. I am a Cali girl, born in San Francisco and lived in Northern California for all of my 58 years. I love the redwoods, the ocean and the perfect weather. I also love the open attitude and relaxed personality that California exudes, for the most part. 

But OH MY GOODNESS, I am SO ready to start over in a new place! Beautiful Cali is killing us financially and we want to be near our married son and daughter-in-law. Two very important reasons to make this huge change. We hope to live in a town near Writer Son and the delightful Sassy Bride! YAY!!

How in the world did I get from "No way!" to dancing a jig of happiness and "Let's do this!"? Maybe you recall a post at the end of August called "Conversation Under the Stars". (Several of the comments mentioned the idea that a change may be around the corner. You knew more than I did.)  I wrote about how the Hubs and I had both been praying in the spirit for a few days and had no idea why. For a translation from the underlined christianese to english, click the words. 

About 7 weeks ago we had another backyard chat that began with the Hubs saying, "I've been thinking." I love those! He said that maybe we should seriously consider moving to Texas to be near the kids next year. 

Here is where the miracle happened....I jumped at the idea! I said a clear and definite YES! In fact it may have scared him a bit. But I was thrilled and excited and immediately happy at the idea. By the next morning there were lists being scribbled and online searches for homes had begun. Ha! Poor man. He convinced me to slow down and begin by concentrating on getting rid of our accumulated treasures stuff from 35 years of marriage and 18 years in this house.

Several weeks later I did some dot-connecting. I realized that the conversation under the stars happened just a few days before the big decision. I believe there is a direct connection between the two happenings. When we pray in the spirit, we are praying without confusion or human agenda. It is true "Your will be done" kind of praying. I think that the last stubborn obstacles in me were removed, and the strength to decide were added to him as we prayed. Holy Spirit did some major re-arranging inside each of us and the result is pure joy. CRAZY!!

I am still going to leave us a backdoor though. I am not saying that God told us to move to Texas. It feels right. It seems to make sense and also to make no sense at all (which sounds like God's way pretty often.) The true gift of this experience is that we have been jolted out of our season of limbo and blankness. Texas may be the landing place for us. It could be somewhere else, but we know we have to move, and we are doing all we can to be ready to do that when the time is right. I believe that God is in this change of attitude and action.

Woo-hoo! Let's do this thing!! 

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Found Inside a 45 Year Old Binder

Can you picture a little freckle-nosed, hair-flipped, junior higher carrying a hard-back binder up against her chest? It was red and black plaid. I loved that thing. Taped onto the inside cover was a special little reminder from my mother. In recent years I have searched in vain for this poem online. My memory only held the first line and I figured that it would remain a vague memory. I began to think that I had imagined it. 

But today as I cleaned out another box from the garage shelves, I discovered a treasure box of keepsakes I had put away forever ago. I read letters from old friends, stroked the silky hair of troll dolls and surprise, surprise, found the little "Thoughts" poem that had been taped into my jr high binder! I didn't just imagine it! 

Here it is on a plaid background so you can read the smile -reminder for yourself. Now that I had the rest of the poem I was able to do a bit of research and it was published in a small newspaper in Idaho in 1965 and an Iowa newspaper in 1967. No author names are recorded.

We are all products of our childhoods. We carry with us the good, the bad and the ugly. Thankfully "the good" comes along with those other two. I have always known that we are not created to be submissive to our moods. That we have an active choice in our attitude. (Thanks Mom!)

Taking our thoughts captive and "Being the Boss of Our Brain" have been recurring themes here at RCL.The roots have been discovered. Did I think that I had discovered this truth on my own?

Connecting the dots today as this 58 year old smiles back at the little freckle-nosed 7th grader. 

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Bits of News

 

I am honored and excited to be a monthly contributing writer for this beautiful website called "5 Minutes for Faith". It has several sister sites such as "5 Minutes for Books, 5 Minutes for Going Green..." 

They have published me before, "A Longish Text from God to You Today", "Be the Boss of Your Brain", "Is Your God Smiling?" as a Guest Contributor. Now I am looking forward to writing for them every month!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aaaand The winner of yesterday's Riddle Me This .......is my blog-friend, Pamela from Closed Doors, Open Windows and the name of her blog is quite appropriate! Yes, we are moving from California to the great state of Texas in 2014! Feels so good to have a plan!! More details coming soon.  Color me...

  

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Riddle Me This...

How in the world could these three things connect? :

• A monosyllabic (yep, big word alert!) conversation under the stars.

• Sudden manic closet cleaning.

• A goofy woman dressed up in her husband's size 12 cowboy boots.

Hmmm? 

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To Behold...

Layla is trying to comfort me because the tears are flowing. She cannot understand why I am sitting here crying. I can't either. But they are not sad tears, or angry tears or even confused tears. My eyes have been brimming for days. Ready for the slightest bump to release the unreasonable emotion. 

Don't be scared. It's all good. Really it is. Now Layla has relaxed and the snoring is about to commence. I am watching the trees dancing outside my window and the beauty simply overwhelmed me. 

I'm not standing in the amazing redwoods; these are just your ordinary, every day yard trees in a suburban subdivision that looks exactly like a million others. I am not on our coastline listening to the crash of waves hitting the rocky shore. All I am hearing are the neighbor's dogs, a few birds who are hanging tightly to the tree branches in this wind and some voices across the street. I am not in the mountains overlooking valleys of green as far as the eye can see. My eyes are only seeing some leaves traveling around the cul-de-sac as if they were late for an important date and forgot which way to go.

But my heart is full. Maybe the beauty of the Lord has filled me up so much today that the overflow had to stream out through tears. The beauty of the Lord....what does that even mean? I certainly cannot try to explain something that I cannot even grasp. 

I'm not going to try to put words around this sense...this sense of HIS presence...HIS...why do I want to say "manifest" presence? Dictionary:"MANIFEST: readily perceived by the eye or the understanding; evident; obvious; apparent; plain."......because it is NOT evident or obvious at all. It is subtle, gentle, but HERE. 

The beauty of the Lord is all around us. This world feels overtaken by ugliness in recent years. The glory of instant access to information all over the world brings the raw and coarse realities to us relentlessly. Man mistreating man, until we have to look away and our eyes must have something beautiful to rest upon so we can take a breath. For a minute. 

Look at the trees. See them dance and sway. Allow your eyes to follow a single leaf as it falls. Does it land without a tiny twist and turn? Or does it fly over and under the neighbor's fence and then give itself to the wind and eventually find rest beside a mailbox? 

God is in the trees and the wind. His beauty is saturating the air around us. I see Him behind the eyes of Layla, in the sun as it puddles on my kitchen floor and in the sound of my son coming home late at night. The beauty of the Lord is here in my home and in yours. 

My tears have dried now. I have set this laptop aside to let the dog out and then let her back in as I asked her to please make up her mind. And I am still embracing the beauty of the Lord, even now as the dog turns in circles, settles herself and the snoring resumes. 

Happy Sunday My Friends,
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Well, Huh!! Or Well, Duh!

My normal view as I write.

This post is an apology of sorts. Yesterday Rocker Son and I were talking about those online programs that are designed to help writers concentrate. Downloading the programs will lock you out of the Internet so you will be able to give all of your attention to writing without any distraction.

But (as I roll my eyes) to PAY to NOT have Internet access just messes with my head. Have we come to this? Really? In our conversation I scoffed at such silliness.

And then, today I needed to write a new parenting post for a client. The idea for the post came to me during the night last night and I knew where I wanted it to go, but was having trouble getting started. 

So much calmer with this view.

So I did a little NO-COST experiment. I simply enlarged the writing screen to cover my whole desktop. AND it was the weirdest thing! I nearly felt my HEART RATE slow down and let myself take a deep breath. It was crazy the difference that little change made! I am impressed with the power our eyes hold over our mind and emotions. I was able to quickly and cleanly write exactly what the client needed in record time. 

So I am not sure who I am apologizing to. But I will no longer roll my eyes at the theories regarding visual distractions for writers. I did turn off my Internet connection during this exercise too, so that I would not hear the email notifications etc. We all get so accustomed to the little beeps and bzzz's and have no idea how much they pull the mind away from center and focus. 

Know what? I love being a writer! I learn something new every single day. I am meeting amazing writers and taking steps closer to my dream all the time! I am so thankful to Father God for this crazy, challenging, beautiful adventure!

Thanks for reading!

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— Susie Klein (@SusieKlein55) October 6, 2013

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You Need Some Turkey Glasses!

I've been deep into some serious closet and cupboard cleaning recently. It feels so good to throw stuff out and decide what to keep and what to junk. (The reason behind my need to weed will be coming soon!) :) These fabric covered boxes were made for us years ago by my mom. They have held Writer Son and Rocker Son's childhood medical records, school work, school pictures and other family paperwork.

One of the boxes held some of the resources from my years of children's ministry. Yesterday I threw away magazines, crumbling glitter covered mysteries and lesson plans. But 2 items could not be thrown away. Have you ever felt a sentimental connection to something as silly as paper creations? They just made me go "Oh!" as I pulled them out of the box. 

It's our traditional Turkey Glasses! Every kid's group I worked with over the years got to (or had to) make and wear these hilarious glasses. They loved them and I loved watching the parent's reactions when the kids walked out of class wearing these! 

This ridiculous looking "hat" was an original idea of mine that I was very proud of. Matthew 10:30 says that God has the hairs on our heads numbered. I taught a lesson on how much we are loved by God and how well He knows everything about each one of us. So the kids cut the middles out of a paper plate, punched holes around the edges and added yarn hair as a reminder of the verse that was written around the plate. 

While I discovered these artifacts, it occurred to me that the message of God's amazing and individual love for everyone has been a recurring theme all my life. (Read about the Ministry School Love Lesson here.) Someone once told me that we each have a particular "Life Message", and it is our reason for being. We can discover that one main message and use it to help us make choices in jobs, hobbies, writing and outreach activities. I have argued with God about the simple message He's given me, but we do need to hear it again and again. And our "arguments" tend to be pretty one-sided anyway. 

So now the fabric boxes are going to be used for my freelance writing jobs. It will be good to have a special place for all my clips, books, writing magazines and discs. 

Rocker Son's silly side and dark side in evidence here. :)

Oh yes, along with years of christmas wish lists, greeting cards and school report cards, I came across a serious looking manila envelope with an unfamiliar handwriting ... "Mrs. K"... on the outside. Could not remember what was in it. A school report on Metal Music by Rocker Son slipped out. When I showed it to him, he reminded me that he got in a lot of trouble for that report. Can't imagine why he had so much trouble at the conservative christian school.   

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This weekend is RANDOM JOURNAL DAY!

Though this post is not taken from a journal, it IS

taken from memories of the past so I'm going to cheat

and call it a Random Journal Day post.

Click on over to Dawn's place and read some other

random journal posts! 

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