WRITEON FOR AUGUST 4, 2021
sister alies.
Hard to believe it’s August! The Olympics striving, covid thriving (do wear a mask it must be better than death or infecting someone else?), heat oppressive, sunlight shimmering, and I am a grateful happy woman. You? Have been writing a lot and getting a little book of 40 SHORT STORIES together…fun. Short stories have given me a vehicle to explore lots of different people, places, and things. Novellas, the novel indeed, given the opportunity develops a story. The short story is like a snapshot, hitting the highlights, focusing on one thing. Bringing some truth to the fore.
‘Do anything, but let it produce joy.’ Walt Whitman was right there. How many times do we do, say, or imagine things that do not produce joy? Perhaps we get caught in friendly fire between friends, or family squabbles, or even political arguments? Good discussion is valuable. Finding facts is valuable. But we never really need that one-up-man-ship-ness that ‘I told you so’ or ‘I’m usually right’ can bring. No, the joy of discovery must be its own wonderful gift. Just finished reading John McCain’s book The Restless Wave. It was his subtitle that attracted me: ‘Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations’. Seems a life of service well lived. A good read.
The babies in my bluebird box are now juniors, chirping and flying all over. And there’s a gorgeous junior woodpecker on the nearby telephone pole. He is magnificent in his solid deep reds and black. Isn’t God just the best artist? Who is out your window or in your bushes? The crepe myrtles are glorious again this year…and though our gardenia is no longer flowering I can still get a whiff of her tantalizing aroma.
I may have shared these before, if so, chuckle again, if not enjoy. (‘anonymous’):
‘The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.’
A dentist’s hymn: ‘Crown Him with Many Crowns’.
A gossip’s hymn: ‘O for a Thousand Tongues’.
‘I saw the slow-moving, sad faced old gentleman as he bounced off the hood of my car.’
‘I was on the way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.’
‘That guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.’
In the bulletin: ‘Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.’
OOOPs…
The Scriptures frequently say it better than anywhere:
‘Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing…’ (PS 126)
BLESSINGS.
sister alies.
