Carolyn Astfalk's Blog, page 45

Oh, the Places Your Art Will Go

A couple of weeks ago, I endured a particularly grueling trip to the grocery store with my two youngest children. It started with the purchase of King Julian yogurt tubes instead of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle yogurt tubes and escalated to a shouting match over who would press the button to close the rear door of the minivan. An attempt was made at choking. An arm was bitten hard enough to leave a bruise. There was much wailing and whining as I slammed shut the vehicle to head for home. All I could think to do was crank up the car stereo. I didn’t care what song was on, only that it would drown out the pandemonium in my car. It happened to be Dustin Lynch’s “That’s Where It’s At.”

The song’s okay. I don’t have much feeling for it one way or another. But I started to pity Dustin Lynch. Someone slaved over that song. Every chord, each lyric, was the product of someone’s creativity. There were writers, performers, producers, and others. The grand sum of countless hours of creativity and work was, for me, finding its fulfillment in suffocating the noise of my children in meltdown mode.

Photo by Tamarcus Brown,unsplash

We’ve all used “art” that way, haven’t we? Music or television programming to supplant too much noise or too much silence. Magazines for the kids to cut out pictures. Newspapers to line a rodent’s cage. A movie to distract during illness or pain. A book to keep the window propped open or boost the toddler at the dinner table.

For a writer, it’s a sober reminder to not take myself or my work so seriously. The novel I spend hundreds of hours dreaming, writing, editing, formatting, and promoting could end up all sorts of places. Even unseemly places. (I say this as a child who read dozens of Archie comic books in the quiet and privacy or our family bathroom.)

A sober reminder to not take myself or my work so seriously. #amwritingTweet This

The words, images, and music created by others permeates our lives. A movie playing may be the backdrop to crime, sin, celebration, or illness. Papers on which words were created with loving attention sop up messes, clutter shelves, jam purses, and line library sale tables. Music is the background of meals, runs, shopping excursions, road trips, breaking up and making up.

It’s not the material form of the art that endures. It’s rarely even the intangible mood, meaning, or emotion it creates. Art is ephemeral. But sometimes . . . sometimes it sticks.

Air Supply’s Greatest Hits was the soundtrack for the bus ride of my eighth grade field trip to Washington, DC.
U2’s Zooropa is the record that played inside my boyfriend’s Oldsmobile Calais late, late on Friday and Saturday nights when we were dating.
Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising is the music that played as my husband and I traveled throughout the green mountains of Vermont on vacation.
Irish Dreams by Alisa Jones came from the speakers of our little Saturn sedan as we drove up and down a misty Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
When I quit working full-time and resumed reading for pleasure for the first time in years, I picked up The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic by Gay Salisbury to fill the historical fiction requirement of my library’s reading BINGO.
I read John Adams by David McCullough while sitting at my dad’s hospital bedside the day before he died.
Forget Not Love: The Passion of Maximilian Kolbe by André Broussard was read as I lay in a tent in Shenandoah National Park with my napping toddler during the first trimester of my fourth pregnancy.
Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight was my companion during first trimester of my sixth pregnancy.
War Horse is the movie my husband streamed while I was in early labor with my youngest child.

Whether it “sticks,” or is lost to the mountain of memories piling higher behind me each day, these books, these songs, these movies – these moments – are the moments of my life. The shape a moment or a memory or, sometimes, my way of thinking.

I don’t know where the things I’ve created have gone, where the words I’ve strung together have reached – on paper or in cyberspace. It’s probably better that I don’t. It’s enough to hope they touch a heart, a mind, or a soul for a second or two. And if not, maybe they served as fire starter or a door stop. Either is fine by me.

What books, music, or movies have stuck with you or do you identify with a specific time and place?

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An Open Book

 

Welcome to the September 2016 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com!

My husband has been subjecting us to The Fellowship of the Ring audiobook by J.R.R. Tolkien. While my two older kids seem to enjoy the story in limited doses, I say “subjected” because it’s been the soundtrack of his choice for our recent travels. The little kids get bored. The big kids are okay with it if there’s not something else they’d rather be doing, and I must repeatedly slap my husband’s thigh while he’s driving and insist he open his eyes. That’s not to say this production isn’t well done. It seems to be. I think the particular times at which it’s being introduced to us is the biggest problem. For myself, I sincerely wish I enjoyed Tolkien more than I do. But, hey, I loved the Lord of the Rings movies!

I’m slowly making my way through Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. I zipped through the first book in the Lunar Chronicles (Cinder) quickly, but have slowed on this one. It’s not grabbing me right off that bat, but more to the point, I’ve had too many other obligations pulling me away from reading. I will return to it soon!

I’ve also been reading The Catholic Mom’s Prayer Companion, edited by Lisa Hendey and Sarah Reinhard, in order to review it. This is the one and only book I’ve reviewed without completing it, but, honestly, to read this book straight through seems to defeat its purpose, which is to provide short and simple daily meditations. So, I read a couple of months to inform myself of the quality, but I’m going to finish it day by day. And I’m going to be handing out a lot of these to Catholic moms at Christmas!

My son has been reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Interestingly, he borrowed a paperback copy from the library even though we have it on Kindle. These kids and their paper books. Go figure. I read the book for the first time about a decade ago after pulling it off of the shelf at the beach house in which we were staying in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I’d always wanted to read it, and enjoying it so close to where real pirates sailed made it that much better!

My boy’s also reading Roland West, Loner by my friend Theresa Linden. The book was one of our Christmas gifts to him, and I’m happy to see him reading something I enjoyed so much. I love that he asks me questions about the characters and other books in the series as if I have the inside scoop.

My daughter is STILL reading Trixie Belden, so no news to report there.

We did a little bit (very little bit) of cleanup, and shifted some boxes of books that were in my son’s bedroom. They are temporary storage for some of our favorite picture books. The littlest of our kids have no memory of these books, so they were excited to discover them. All of our children have loved Honeybee’s Busy Day by Richard Fowler. That little bee on the front cover is made of durable cardboard. Slip her out of her plastic pouch and take her through each page’s adventures by sliding her through the slots. There’s so much excitement over this book in our house that I have to strictly enforce taking turns. I’ve noticed that the author has a similar book, A Squirrel’s Tale, which is available at the gift shop in Shenandoah National Park, where we recently visited. I’m tempted to give that one a try too.

The kids have also been enjoying one of my childhood favorites, The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman. I barely recall the controversy over this book when I was young. It didn’t dim my love for the story, and I’m happy to see that all of my children love it as much as I do. Something about those tigers zipping around the tree so quickly they turn to ghi is simply magical! I haven’t revisited the hullaballoo over this book, but to say that the text is racist seems absurd to me. The characters are bright and industrious and in any case, they are not even African or African-American. They are Indian. With its tiger sounds and repeated dialogue between Sambo and the tigers, it’s a delightful story perfect for reading aloud.

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Want more details on An Open Book? You can also sign up for An Open Book reminder email, which goes out one week before the link-up. No blog? That’s okay. Just tell us what you’re reading in the comment box.

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Small Success Thursday

Why small success? Because that’s the only kind I know! Even the big ones come in small steps. Here’s my paltry offering for the week:

The end of summer stuff – The final days of summer vacation included the usual consultation of lists and running from store to store. School supplies, uniforms, shoes, and a backpack were purchased. It doesn’t seem like a lot when it’s condensed into a nine-word sentence, but with four kids, summer uniforms and gym uniforms, it becomes a project. We also turned in our summer reading packets to the library. I failed at listing books and counting minutes for the little kids, so only the older kids and I were able to collect our free books and prizes.
The tote bag – I like to decorate the canvas tote bags my kids use in preschool. The day before school, I picked up a plain bag for my son. In the past, I’d adhered flowers, butterflies, and gems to my daughters’ bags. As is the case in most things, they were fewer options of items that would typically appeal to boys. With no appliqués in sight, I found buttons. Things with wheels and Disney’s Cars buttons to be exact. Only the lumpy loop for affixing the buttons prevented me from adhering them properly with various glues. So, my son went to his first day of preschool with 16 buttons on his bag. He came home with less than half. Luckily most were inside his bag. One was found in our living room. One his older sister found in the school hallway. It took a little time, but I sewed them all on with invisible thread, which I should’ve done in the first place. I’m not crafty. Can you tell?

Mater is firmly affixed.

The back-to-school papers – At least now I know to expect the giant pile of forms I must complete. Emergency contacts, permission slips, school policies, and more come home that first day. I was pretty satisfied with myself when I turned everything in the next morning along with all the appropriate payments. This is the one and only year my kids will be under one school roof. Next year, when my oldest begins high school, I expect there will be even more papers. Yay.

The pile.

The tomatoes – Between our CSA share and a bag we received from an acquaintance, we were suddenly overrun with ripe tomatoes. After letting them clutter my counter top for a couple of days, I finally peeled, cored, puréed, and froze them. I hope to make both spaghetti sauce and barbecue sauce.

And, more tomatoes arrived the next day.

College savings accounts – We’ve been saving small amounts to our son’s college savings plan for many years. And completely ignoring the other three children’s existence when it came to post-secondary education needs. I finally got their individual accounts set up and am ready to transfer some of their money. It’ll probably pay for one credit hour, but I guess that’s better than nothing.

That’s all I’ve got. Celebrate more small successes over at CatholicMom.com.

Have you had any small successes this week?

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The Mixed Blessings of Progress

For the first time in four years, we spent some time in Shenandoah National Park. We typically tent camp, but there was a period in which my husband feared having two toddlers in the wilderness (along with our other kids). We gave it a shot last week, choosing a spot in the Big Meadows Lodge over a tent this time out.

Dark Hollow Falls, photo by Michael Astfalk

It’s no secret to anyone that frequents my blog how much I enjoy the park. I love its lush rolling mountains, its wildlife, and nearly everything about it. It’s even a setting in my novel Stay With Me. I’m grateful that its beauty is accessible to me and thousands of others for our enjoyment. I’m often surprised at the number of international visitors to the park that we meet; it’s a worldwide vacation destination.

To its credit, the National Park Service, which is currently celebrating a century since its creation, doesn’t whitewash how the park came to be. Many mountain residents, deemed “uncivilized,” “disreputable,” and worse,  were evicted from their beloved homes, some even as part of a eugenics program in which they were forcibly sterilized.

Educator and social worker Miriam Sizer characterized the mountain families thusly: “Steeped in ignorance, wrapped in self-satisfaction and complacency, possessed of little or no ambition, little sense of citizenship, little comprehension of law, or respect for law, these people present a problem that demands and challenges the attention of thinking men and women . . .”

Shenandoah National Park’s history leaves with me mixed feelings – grateful for the park’s existence and sorry for the circumstances of its creation. If you ever have an opportunity to visit, I encourage you to spend some time in the Byrd Visitor Center at Big Meadows, learning of its history.

Grateful for Shenandoah National Park’s existence and sorry for the circumstances of its creation.Tweet This

The park, which employed the Civilian Conservation Corps for its creation, is a natural treasure. Its history is a sober reminder of the ever-present threat of dehumanization, eugenics, and invasive government. Sometimes progress isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

How do you think knowledge of the park’s history may affect visitors’ experience and enjoyment of it?

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#WorthRevisit: Nature’s Calling. Are You Listening?

I’m linking up with Theology is a Verb and Reconciled to You for #WorthRevisit Wednesday Linkup.

Less than two weeks away from Labor Day and fresh from a short but unplugged visit to Shenandoah National Park, this seemed like the perfect post to revisit.

Man has endured work since Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden:

To the man he said: Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You shall not eat from it,

Cursed is the ground because of you!

In toil you shall eat its yield

all the days of your life. (Gen 3:17)

Yet “work is for man, not man for work.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2428) So, this Labor Day and throughout the year, what can you do bring a bit of genuine leisure to your life? To cultivate a sabbath or respite?

One of the simplest, most beneficial, FREE things you can do is get out into nature. In the weeks before school began, I crammed in some last-minute opportunities to get myself and my children outside. We visited a grotto, gardens, nature trails, and a nature sanctuary.

Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Anecdotally, I recognize that these experiences enhanced my mood, lowered my stressed and refreshed my soul. Science backs up my experience, positing that walking in nature actually changes the brain!

Being in nature consistently:

relaxes me
connects me to God
broadens my perspective
restores a sense of wonder
unleashes my creativity

It pays to take time, step away from the electronic devices, and step into nature. It’s the perfect balm for your weary soul.

How does a nature walk affect you?

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Wise Like an Old Dog

By Guest Blogger Cynthia Toney

I learn a lot about human behavior from my dogs.

Recently, one of my female dogs lay in the sun enjoying the freshly mowed grass. In spite of there being hundreds of square feet of similar space available, another of my dogs (a male) joined her and nestled back-to-back against her.

Upon his contact, the female’s ears slicked back. She turned her head and gave the intruder a hard look. Then she got up and left.

In her defense, the weather was uncomfortably hot. I wouldn’t have appreciated another warm body pressed to mine either, especially during much-needed personal time.

You have something valuable to offer, and you don’t even have to try very hard. @CynthiaTToney #wisdomTweet This

But besides being amused by their awkward social situation, I wondered why the male dog had risked intruding on the female. What did the second dog need so badly from the first one to risk rejection? Reassurance of his rank in the pack? Comforting because he felt ill? Relief from loneliness?

Dogs, especially younger ones, often lie or sit next to another dog to learn or to receive protection from the first. Maybe that wasn’t the case this time, but you’ve seen humans do this.

Whether younger or less experienced in some way, a person might awkwardly invade another’s space in order to learn something or gain an emotional benefit.

Sometimes that invasion is a stare. (Dogs stare at each other a lot, which is not considered rude.) If you have a coworker, neighbor, or family member who stares at you while you work, you might find that irritating.

If someone repeatedly hangs around you at the most inconvenient times, maybe you try to avoid him or her. Or you brush ’em off. If you give in, you want to kick yourself afterward. You wish you could be mean and simply get up and leave like my dog did, just to have more time to yourself.

But have you wondered why that person seeks you so often?

Photo by Annett Aagot, pixabay

Espionage or other bad intentions aside, consider that a person may consciously or subconsciously need to learn something from you. Even if it’s the manner in which you speak. (Really.) Why everyone seems to like you. Or how you remain calm in a crisis. (You won’t learn that from me.) It can be something neither of you is aware of that draws him or her to you.

Oh, no! There he (or she) is! You duck your head.

Too late! Now you have to listen to problems and offer words of encouragement.

Take this attention as a compliment. You have something valuable to offer, and you don’t even have to try very hard.

You are admired. You are considered wise.

Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

 

Cynthia Toney

Cynthia writes novels for preteens and teens because she wants them to know how wonderful, powerful, and lovable God made them. She is the author of the Bird Face series, including 8 Notes to a Nobody and 10 Steps to Girlfriend Status, and a new series coming soon, The Other Side of Freedom.

In her spare time, when she’s not cooking Cajun or Italian food, Cynthia grows herbs and makes silk accent pillows. If you make her angry, she will throw one at you. A pillow, not an herb. Well, maybe both.

Cynthia has a passion for rescuing dogs from animal shelters and encourages others to save a life by adopting a shelter pet. She enjoys studying the complex history of the friendly southern U.S. from Georgia to Texas, where she resides with her husband and several canines.

Website:  http://www.cynthiattoney.com

Blog:  http://birdfacewendy.wordpress.com

Facebook Author Page:  https://www.facebook.com/birdfacewendy

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/CynthiaTToney

Twitter:  @CynthiaTToney

Instagram:  @CynthiaTToney

Pinterest:  Cynthia T. Toney, YA Author

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Top 10 Tuesday: Settings as Characters

unsplash.com, photo by David Marcu

I’m linking up with The Broke and the Bookish (which describes me quite well) for my top ten books in which the setting acts as a character.  I worked backwards from my Goodreads list of books read, selecting those whose setting immediately came to mind due to its role in the story. Here they are in no particular order.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: the harsh Nebraska prairie (my review post)

Dying for Revenge by Barbara Golder: trendy Telluride, Colorado (book tour)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: the imposing Manderley estate (my review post)

The Painter’s Daughter by Julie Klassen – the cliffs of the north Devon coast

The Half-Killed by Quenby Olson – oppressively-hot London (author interview)

The Secret of Pembroke Park by Julie Klassen: mysterious Pembroke Park

The Wedding Chapel by Rachel Hauck: the lovingly-crafted wedding chapel

Saving Amelie by Cathy Gohlke: Catholic Bavaria during World War II

Love Unexpected by Jody Hedlund: the turbulent waters of Presque Isle, Michigan

Opal’s Jubilee by Leslie Lynch: the rural Appalachian hollows of Kentucky (author interview)

What book first comes to mind when you think of the setting acting as its own character, shaping the story?

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Relevant Fiction Reviews: Classics I

I enjoy reading books by contemporary authors, but now and then I like to pick up a classic. There are so, so many I haven’t read. These are three I had been meaning to read for a while. Interestingly, at the crux of each of these vastly different novels is the sin of adultery. And in each case, its ramifications are played out.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The depth and grandeur of O Pioneers! didn’t catch up with me until the end. I’d read My Antonia in college and Death Comes for the Archbishop a decade ago, and loved both. O Pioneers! only confirmed my appreciation for Cather’s writing.

I was struck again by the beauty of her prose and imagery.

“There was about Alexandra something of the impervious calm of the fatalist, always disconcerting to very young people, who cannot feel that the heart lives at all unless it is still at the mercy of storms; unless its strings can scream to the touch of pain.”

“He felt as if a clear light broke upon his mind, and with it a conviction that good was, after all, stronger than evil, and that good was possible to men. He seemed to discover that there was a kind of rapture in which he could love forever without faltering and without sin.”

And possibly favorite last line ever:

“Fortunate country, that is one day to receive hearts like Alexandra’s into its bosom, to give then out again in the yellow wheat, in the rustling corn, in the shining eyes of youth!”

What seemed a rather slow-moving and staid story (not unlike steady Alexandra) surprised me in its final chapters with rich emotion and impetuosity (not unlike bubbly Maria).

This a book simple enough to read quickly yet with enough depth to ponder and study. The third person omniscient point of view is employed perfectly, bringing the reader in close and then from afar as the scene required.

O Pioneers! left me with my admiration for the many immigrants who forged a life on the American pioneer unscathed and my esteem for Willa Cather increased.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s cinematic adaption of Rebecca decades ago, when I was a child. The mood and wonderful suspense of that movie stuck with me all this time until I finally read the novel.

As I read, I marveled over Daphne DuMaurier’s brilliance in leaving the narrator nameless, only to get to the author notes at the end of my edition in which she reveals that she simply couldn’t think of a name. Regardless, I’m going to chalk it up to subconscious storytelling, which contributes to a novel in ways sometimes the author herself fails to imagine.

The lack of a Christian name further emphasized the narrator’s lack of identity in relation to the omnipresent shadow of Max DeWinter’s first wife, Rebecca.

How much of her renown is as it seems is left to the reader to the discern in the retelling by the nameless, unreliable narrator. Time and again, we see how the new Mrs. DeWinter’s naivete and lack of esteem result in spineless, morally-bankrupt actions despite a seeming sense of right and wrong in menial matters.

Mrs. Danvers is the quasi-villain you love to hate. I would’ve loved even more of her diabolical interference to propel Mrs. DeWinter into action or peril.

As in the classic Jane Eyre, the pervasive mood and internal characterization of the protagonist create a rich, complex, compelling, and suspenseful story.

Despite its lengthy narration, which runs counter to the norms of contemporary storytelling, Rebecca is beloved by many with good reason.

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The End of the Affair has been on my “to-read” list for years. Rather than reading the classic, I listened to the audiobook adaption narrated by Colin Firth. Time and time again, I backed up the audio to re-listen to Greene’s imagery and sapient phrasing, expertly rendered by Firth.

A dark meditation on love, lust, jealousy, hatred, and the existence and nature of God, The End of the Affair earns the label classic. Part of me wants to re-listen to Greene’s prose not just for its beauty but also to dissect it, trying to glean every point and counterpoint.

Maurice Bendrix’s hatred for his former lover Sarah Miles and his jealously of her milquetoast husband Henry Miles waxes and wanes through Morris’s retelling, moving back and forth from the present to the beginning of the affair through to the end and beyond. Eventually, after having read Sarah’s diary, Bendrix’s jealousy twists, finding its target in the God Sarah struggled to know and love, the God who had His own part in ending the affair.

The last section of the book is filled with incidents that bring to light the power of baptism, the veracity of purported miracles, God’s relentless pursuit of his children, and the notion that no one lies outside the realm of God’s infinite mercy.

Writers are also treated to author Bendrix’s gems about writing, extrapolated expertly to the eternal drama of life and redemption.

Sometimes classics disappoint. This one did not.

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Seven Quick Takes

Stuff We’ve Been Up To Edition

As summer vacation winds to hot, muggy close, I’ve lost the ability to create a cohesive theme. This is stuff we’ve been doing, things pulling me in different directions as we try to savor summer.

–1–
The Mobile Drive-In

Our township has been doing these drive-in movies at the park for several summers. Until last week, the timing and the chosen movie never worked for us. Friday night, I took my kids and one of their friends to see The Peanuts Movie (truly a great little movie) at our park. Our arrival was somewhat delayed by our inability to find where my husband hid our camp chairs, but arrive we did. The whole atmosphere was fun. The park at night, the families, the free Twizzlers handed out. Just as the movie was about to begin, the entire screen deflated. It was a full hour and several attempts at re-inflating and restarting the movie until we began. By 9:30 p.m., most of the little kids present were probably ordinarily asleep, but here we were just getting started. All in my party agreed we’d do it again IF it started on time.

Moments before the epic deflation.

 –2–
Eagle Scout Project

Not my scout’s project. But, he’s spent quite a few hours helping out another scout with his. It reminded me of my favorite thing about scouting (and from what I’ve seen so far, 4H): kids DO stuff themselves. Sure, they need directions, but they’re pretty capable when you let them have at it. Scouts has forced me to allow my child to do many things I wouldn’t otherwise expect him to do, and, for that, I’m grateful. Laying pavers and mulching this week? Yep. My 13-year-old can help with that.

–3–

Totally Awesome ’80s Party

I took the kids to an ’80s party hosted by our friends where I had to explain to them who Boy George was and got to impress them with my vast (useless) knowledge of ’80s tunes during a game of Name That Tune. Sadly, we don’t have much ’80s attire around here, but with my husband gone on retreat, I made my son where his gnarly mullet wig and gave my fine-haired daughter the highest teased-out side ponytail we could manage.

Totally awesome get-ups, dude.

–4–

Retreat Meetup Fail

Ordinarily we meet up with my husband on Sunday morning of his annual weekend retreat for the closing Mass at the Lourdes Grotto in Emmitsburg. Unfortunately, the sequential late night drive-in movie and ’80s party left me unable to wake some of the kids up early enough to accommodate our hour-long drive. You’ll have to rely on this post from last year to catch a glimpse of the grotto.

My husband got to spend time in adoration on retreat. We actually argued about this later, just to keep things real for you.

–5–

Fatty McChrysalis

Although our garden is teeming with milkweed, we’ve found only two Monarch caterpillars so far this season. In order to help the little guys along (as recommended to us by an official-type Monarch expert), my butterfly girl continues to catch and shepherd them through their metamorphoses. For the first time, one died after making its chrysalis. Its companion, however, the lovingly-named Fatty McChrysalis, has made himself an exquisite chrysalis, and we wait for him to emerge a beautiful butterfly!

The caterpillars, pre-pupa stage.

–6–

The Astfalk Family Olympics

Inspired by the games in Rio, my kids have begun their own games minus the dedication, discipline, and rigorous practice required by real Olympians. So far there’s been a bicycle/tricycle race in our alley and water gun target shooting. I believe light saber fencing is up next.

One of the squirt gun targets.

–7–

The Toy Store

Somewhere in the midst of all that, I made a run to our local toy store to pick up some gifts. Everyone should have a toy store like this nearby. Here you find the unique stuff, the fun stuff, and the nostalgic toys you won’t find at your big box store. It’s the kind of place you can’t visit without smiling.

Makes you feel like a kid again.

What are you up to in the dog days of summer?

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Turning Daily to the Word of God

by Guest Blogger Allison Gingras
Scripture. God’s Word. The Bible.

What do those words mean to you?

Do you consider the Word of God as useful in your own daily life? Does it seems strange that an ordinary book on your shelf could be so important to every day decision-making, behavior-choosing, life-happenings?

If I were asked this in 2005, I would have answered with a resounding, “no way, it is just an old book with old guys’ opinions in it.”  That was of course before I actually read it; and long before someone explained how the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and then I witnessed God using it to introduce Himself more deeply to me. How can I even put into words what it is like to sit with the Bible, open up a page (even a seemingly random page) and have a message jump off the pages that you KNOW is just for you — for that day and in that moment? It is amazing . . . it is crazy but hard to deny the Divine intervention when it happens.

What other book can you learn from, be moved by, feel as if someone is talking JUST to you? @reconciledtoyouTweet This

What other book on your shelf can you pick up day after day and learn from, be moved by, feel as if someone is talking JUST to you? For me the answer to that question is NONE! No other book draws me in – every day – like the Holy Bible. None.

How does that happen? How does one move from not even owning a Bible to having multiple ones; and some so tattered I have to ‘retire’ them?  Let me share how this happened to me:

Took it one day at a time.
Joined with others to study the Scriptures and share in this earthly journey of faith.
Memorized verses. The ones that really struck a chord in my heart, I choose to keep there. I would write them on index cards and stick them around the house – bathroom mirror, fridge door, my laptop – any place I knew I’d frequently be looking!!
Invited the Holy Spirit to be my guide.
Made it habit by putting it on my calendar and adding it to my to-do list, then not skipping when it came up on either!
Appointments with Jesus and the Word of God are super important! I like my “coffee with Christ” in the mornings or the “snuggles with Scripture” before bed whenever I can.

Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives.

“Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.”
Colossians 3:16

One summer I felt the nudge to offer a six-week faith sharing on The Purpose Driven Life for the women of my parish. I had never done anything like this before, but the more I felt the Scriptures opening my heart to Jesus and helping me to really hear His voice in my life, the more I felt called to share this with others. First, I had to obtain permission from my pastor. The odds of him allowing a Bible newbie to facilitate a group on the Scriptures, nevermind that the newbie was using an ecumenical book as her guide, were slim. I fretted for days on how to proceed. I even considered asking the Congregational Church if I could hold a group there. My husband, who generally stays out of my fretting, insisted I needed to ask our priest first. One Friday afternoon, he got me so worked up over the matter (aka madder than a hornet), that I grabbed my book and stormed out the door with a, “FINE, whatever, I’ll just drive over there right now and ask him!”

It is important to note that this was Friday, and I was well aware it was my pastor’s day off; the drama was mostly for show – but I still went through the motions. As I drew closer to the church, there was road construction. Now, I am not the greatest of drivers. I am cautious but not always accurate. The idea of having to navigate through treacherous roads between a gaping hole in the earth and the kind police officer waving me on, did NOT incite me to see this mission any further, when suddenly this verse entered my heart:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity,
but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
2 Timothy 1:7

How could I receive such a clear message and not continue on — especially since I was CONVINCED this would all be for not, because Father was never, ever, ever at the Parish on Fridays. Ever.

I navigated through the maze of trucks, workers and police – all gratefully unscathed. I drove around the corner and into the parking lot, and there standing directly in front of me . . . IN THE PARKING LOT . . . was my pastor. The abridged end to this story (which was filled with many more God moments) was this — I knew exactly how to present the idea to him, that he felt confident the Spirit was guiding it, and gave me permission. The Purpose Driven Summer was in the works!  Little did I know God was only getting started with revealing his plan for me through His Word; ten years later I am now in full-time ministry and in the process of creating amazing Scripture-filled faith-sharing books for women!

When has the Word of God prompted you to act confidently or boldly? If you have not experienced this yet, where would you like the Spirit to move in such a way in your life?

Allison Gingras

Allison Gingras is founder of  Reconciled To You and host of A Seeking Heart on Breadbox Media weekdays at 10 a.m. ET. Allison blogs, writes and speaks about living an everyday life of faith. She created the “Words With” daily devotional app series, Words with Jesus, and offers presentations on forgiveness, trust, and lessons from the Blessed Mother. Find her on:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ReconciledToYou

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/reconciledtoyou

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