So, to Answer Your Question.....

This blog is being written in an attempt to blow off at least some of the layers of dust that have been gathering here over the past few months . . . AND because I am suffering under the delusion that at least some of you enjoy reading.

Possibly not reading 300+ pages on a computer screen, but isn’t that what ipads and smartphones are for?  So, for all of you technologically advanced who are bored with the apps and looking for something amazing to do with your new-found (or old-treasured) electronic wealth, allow me to make this small suggestion.

I’ve been writing rather copiously these past few months.  Not here obviously.  But writing nonetheless.  And the result now stands ready for inspection.

Trava.

A modern day fairytale from the country of Surn.

Which you’ve never heard of before, have you?

That’s because I made it up.  All 38 chapters.  Fainting ladies, burning barns, talking animals, and rather elusive kings included.

It’s not published at present, and just in case it’s not, you’d better read it while you have the chance.  Thanks to the Internet, Trava is online in very organized chapters, waiting patiently for your perusal.

You’ll find it Here.

You are most welcome to share this with anyone you'd like - especially those between the ages of 9-17.  I'd also love to hear from you with any thoughts or suggestions you might have.  I've already changed a piano to a flute and gotten rid of a water faucet.  Who knows?  You might be able to make the main character a blonde.

Take it while you can.  If the manuscript ever makes it to print, it’s not going to be free anymore. :-)

Again

It’s happened again.  Something inexplicable.  Something unthinkable.  Something that’s not supposed to happen in a place where daffodils come up in the spring and butterflies crawl out of cocoons.

Kindergartners are not supposed to die.  Not at gunpoint.  Not in the chair they were learning their ABC’s in.

The news channels aren’t getting any sleep these days.  They’re too busy talking.  I’m listening to them now.

Harsher gun laws.  Arrest them if they won’t comply!  Where are the psychologists?  Isn’t there a drug that could have stopped this?  Where’s the security?  Why don’t we have an armed cop in every classroom?

The discussions go on . . . and on . . . and on . . .

While the parents weep and the pastors are unusually busy.  While flags go to half-mast and moments of silence abound.  While other kindergartners go to school in the morning, wondering if they’ll be shot.  While everyone asks why?

And we’re so caught up in the drama, we miss the point again.

How do 20 murdered kindergartners compare to 10,000 Ugandan abducted kids?  How does a day of terror stand next to a year of one million American abortion victims?  How does one classroom of death stack up against the hundreds of bombed churches across the Arab world?

It’s not really the worst tragedy of the century.  It’s not something we’ve never seen before.  It hasn’t even surprised our worst nightmares.  And, unfortunately, it is going to happen again.  And it won’t be fixed.  And we will forget.

But if God was good when Cain killed Abel in a field, then maybe He’s still good when Jimmy kills Tommy in a classroom.  And if God was personally interested in Job’s answer when he lost his crops, his herds, his house, and his kids all in one day, then maybe He’s still personally interested in our answer today.  And if God said that even the Pharisees with all their good works weren’t blameless enough to enter Heaven, then maybe He doesn’t see blameless when He looks at us.  And if God “didn’t spare His own Son but graciously gave Him up for us all,” then maybe He’s not obligated to spare us.  And if God could take His dead Son and raise Him back to life, then maybe He can do the same with us.

And maybe that’s where we need to fix our eyes.  Whether corn prices are skyrocketing or the government’s in debt or the Christmas tree is perfect or a man with a gun walks into a classroom.

^"Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior."

The Cast of The Thorn Princess

Here we all are!!  Princes, sound techs, ruffians, wise women, spotlight-ers, and all!  Ready to take the stage next weekend, November 17-19.  As you can see, we're very, very excited!

A Link to a Link to a Link?

Wow.

Keeping up two blogs is exhausting.

Well, maybe it's not just the two blogs.  It might also have something to do with the directing and the nephews and the dog and the cardboard boxes and the cold I've been fighting (or not fighting...) for the last week and a half.

Does this sound familiar?  Am I repeating myself?

The good news is, the Internet has made it really easy to communicate without actually talking.

I've learned a trick.  It's all summed up in one word: Links.

This is my link for today: Click here

If you click on those little words, the Internet will somehow magically do whatever it does to send you over to my OTHER blog.  The Thorn Princess blog.  Where I'll probably be doing most of my writing over the next 6 weeks.  Or until the most epic fairytale of all time hits the stage in mid-November.

Just in case you were missing my voice.  My white on black, computer-screened, non-audible voice.

Welcome to the Age of the Virtual.

Pictures, Not Words

I’ve discovered something about life.

Something I’m sure my two married sisters and two sisters-in-law (all four with kids) discovered long, long ago.

It’s hard to keep up a blog when you’re busy.

Now, I’m only baby-sitting at present.  My two New Orleans nephews whose parents are flying to Thailand to look into the possibility of moving there as missionaries.  Apparently, traveling and missions runs in my family.  And, actually, I’m only half-baby-sitting.  My mom’s doing most of the work.

But I’m also directing a play.  And making jewelry to sell at two shops and online.  And writing a book.  And waitressing part time.  And walking my dog and burning broccoli on purpose and checking emails and riding my horse and brushing my teeth and all the other little daily things that I have to do in order to not keel over and die.

All of which means that at present I talk a lot and write a little.  A very little.  Which is completely backwards from how things usually are.

So, to make up for it, I’m sharing a collage of photos so they can say a thousand words.

(I’d write the thousand words myself, but I don’t have the time.)