Creative Block

I am experiencing, and trying to escape from, what is commonly known as "writer's block".  I have many topics and creative thoughts rolling around cerebrally but when I go to lay my fingertips on the backlighted keyboard...I have nothing!

I'll start to write a piece and then halfway through the process realize that it would offend someone and immediately delete it.  It is frustrating to sit before my computer screen and just be.  I want to write.  I want to express.  **ugh**

There must be a really, really good story coming as it must be brewing somewhere in my being. So, I guess it's a game of wait and see until the story is ready to be birthed.

Until then, I'll stay here looking at the screen who's looking back at me. 

At The Library

She put the book back on the dust-lined shelf and, as she sat down at the table, inhaled the musty but familiar smell of the old library. She had been coming here since she was a small child and this building had watched her grow in so many ways: picture books, tween paperbacks, teen romance, and adult non-fiction. 

She quickly typed the title of the book now shelved and added the author and the ISBN to the spreadsheet on her computer labeled, "To Read Next".

With only a few more minutes before the library closed, she knew she needed to put her things away and check out the stack of books perched on the table beside her. 

It was hard for her to leave that night, just like every evening she had spent in the library before this. But, she knew she had to go so she gathered her belongings and made her way to the check-out desk.

She handed the librarian the stack of books she wanted to check-out and passed her a handwritten note.

The note read, "Thank you for working here. I love coming here and, without your efforts, I don't think the library would be the same. I am deaf and cannot hear the conversations and expressed emotions around me. But, in the world of books, I can! I love it when I can "hear" communication in the text. Thank you for making that possible for me."

...and the librarian, with tears welled up in her eyes, reached over the counter and touched the girl's arm and said, "Thank you", hoping that the girl could read lips.

The girl looked into the well-worn eyes of the librarian and nodded her head up and down in agreement.

The girl saw and felt emotion. Maybe she didn't need to "hear" communication after all.

When Miracles Happen

I wiggled and pushed and "ouched" my way up as he strategically placed a multitude of pillows around me so that I could sit upright in bed semi-comfortably.  He opened the shutters on our bedroom windows allowing the warm sun rays of light to enter the space and dance around the room before me.  

Then, he moved effortlessly towards my favorite candle, the one that makes its home on the dresser across the room from my bed, and lit the wick poking out of the glass-encased, white wax. Almost immediately, I began to enjoy the light tinges of lavender that spiked the air as it mixed with the undertones of clary sage and together they beckoned me into taking deep, relaxing breaths.

With natural light brightening the room and spa scents floating in the air, he turned around and, with my Mac in hand, asked with a huge grin on his face, "Are you ready for this now?"

Oh, my goodness, was I ever!  "Yes!", I almost shouted at him.

He brought the breakfast tray over, gently rested my computer on it and with his charming way said, "Take it easy.  Don't go overboard."

"Ok", I said, scurrying to open my precious silver laptop and enter the world of my cyber fun!

So, here I am ... a miracle, really!

Four days post the most intense and invasive surgery to date, having had 8 previous back surgeries, and I am awake and alert and doing well.

A miracle, really!  ;)

You are the God who performs miracles;

you display your power among the peoples.

Psalm 77:14

Join me, please, in thanking God for this miracle! 

On Hold

I was going to be on top of things....really!

I knew I wasn't going to be able to offer new blog posts over the next few weeks so I had plans to write several posts, in advance, and then schedule them for later viewing.  I had these grandiose plans of walking with you through my past of who I was before multiple back surgeries and who I am now in the midst of them and because of them.  But, I've completely ran out of time and am really disappointed that I have nothing to post for a while.  (Now, imagine me saying that with a scowling frown, furrowed eyebrows and a hands-on-hips stance aimed right at you!)

So, as I begin to prepare for the beginning of hibernation and life-on-hold, I grab the gold-streaked mug blazoned with "San Francisco" sitting beside me, steeping with red lavender tea, and wonder if you'll be here when I get back.

I'll see you soon and c u smyle! ;)

Oh My Gosh!

It's a morning of being surrounded and immersed in piles of paper:  monthly bills, taxes and t0-d0-lists.

I raise my eyes from the computer and begin to stretch my arms forward, releasing the mounting tension that's building in my shoulders from the arduous administrative tasks at hand and ....

Oh, My Gosh!

It's snowing.  ;)

Not the stay-on-the-ground snow or the make-it-hard-to-drive snow but the much more welcomed fat-drops-of-white-falling-from-the-sky kind of snow that melts upon contact with the earth.  

Ahhhh....the morning at my desk just got a whole lot better.   

Thoughtful Tuesday

Your dream is no higher, nor more out of reach, than the vehicle you choose to use to get there.

- Denise Johnson ;)

Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations on your recent career advancement and I wish you the best in your new role.  I am praying for you that you will have the stamina, integrity and creativity to move our country towards economic stability and, dare I say, world peace.

I have just a few concerns as you enter into heated budget discussions regarding stimulus package offers:

• My friends are being laid off in droves from big name companies that employ most of the city's population like Circuit City, Qmonda, Land America, Wachovia Securities and Philip-Morris.  It seems like our city is imploding with lay-offs.  We are scared.
  

• My friend, who doesn't work outside the home, is scared.  Her husband just got laid off with a minimal severance package and limited healthcare and they have a severely low-functioning, handicapped child.  She is scared.
  

• My friend has closed her upscale day spa despite years of successful entrepreneurism due to lack of income as she watched the luxury industry slow down to a near halt.  She is in the process of losing her home and is a single mom with a teenage daughter.  She is scared.
  

• My friend, in her 3rd round of chemo on her second round of fighting cancer, works for the state and needs her job and desperately needs the healthcare provided to her.   She is scared.
  

• My family is living on separate coasts so that my husband can be gainfully employed.  We are scared.
  

Please, Mr. President, be careful with your choices because there is a lot at stake.  Now is not the time to be prideful and self-serving.  I plead with you to look across our nation and ask God, who is the giver of all wisdom, for direction and purpose.

We need you to act, Mr. President.  Please.

Sincerely,

Me:  patriotic, optimistic, disabled veteran, your cheerleader.