Cheryl Grey Bostrom's Blog, page 15

Ever Been Depressed?

Twenty some years ago, I landed in a black hole of depression that rendered me bereft, despairing, exhausted. Though I would regularly sink into a low-level lethargy with fall’s waning PNW light, this particular year felt like a bludgeon.

When my doctor walked me through the standard depression questionnaire, all those checkmarks left neither of us surprised at my diagnosis: I was clinically depressed from seasonal affective disorder. Winter’s darkness had invaded my body and my mind—and the gloom of it hammered my very soul.

A slew of antidepressants later, I sat with a different physician as she scanned the lab report from my blood draw, which this time included a test new for me: Vitamin D. “Below 10,” she said. “No wonder you’re depressed.” She scribbled dosages on a notepad. I began taking D3 supplements, and my depression dissipated like fog.

What never left me was profound empathy for those who struggle with debilitating depression. I remember that pain. That hopelessness. That overwhelming . . . overwhelm.

I also remember all the well-meaning advice to “pray,” “root out trauma,” “confess your sins,” “exercise,” “eat better,” “sleep,” “get more light,” . . . and a half dozen others.

Legit suggestions, all, since depression can be far more complicated than replacing a vitamin. Doctors and counselors and pastors are still learning about the synergistic mind-body-spirit connection. It’s only been a few years, for example, since researchers discovered that most of our serotonin is manufactured in our guts, and that the food we eat affects its production and availability to our brains. Who knew?

But that’s a subject for another day.

Back then, I employed all the available solutions, given the current knowledge. Though some helped temporarily, the depression roared back. Guilt and failure piggybacked on the darkness inside of me, and I felt abandoned, unable to sense the nearness of the living God I love and depend upon. I felt so alone. Isolated. If you’ve been there, you know all the adjectives describing depression. Must be a hundred of them, and they still can’t touch the depths of that trench.

Oh, for the words of Diana Gruver in that season. Here is an author whose work embodies Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” She molds depression’s debris into a perceptive book of encouragement, showing readers truths to remember when we’re in depression’s throes, how God can infuse meaning into suffering, and how He remains near to us through it all.

Gruver’s book Companions in the Darkness: Seven Saints Who Struggled with Depression and Doubt carries readers into the personal angst and struggles of Christ-followers who fought depression, some for a lifetime. Of saints whose suffering played a pivotal role in God’s transformation of the church, of culture, of families, and of personal lives. Of how God empowered them to endure.

Just as he did for the author, during her own dark days.

No dry history here. This book will have you breathing the same air as Martin Luther, Hannah Allen, David Brainerd, William Cowper, Charles Spurgeon, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr.—and of author Diana Gruver. In learning from their lives, you’ll find renewed hope for your own, and may discover God’s purpose in your suffering.

I highly recommend this thoughtful, wise, beautifully written book.

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Someone’s castle?

“My Father’s house has many rooms . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

—John 14:2

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Follow the leader.

“When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.”

—Proverbs 29:2

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Journal.

“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span?”

—Luke 12:25

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Better than coffee.

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Praying the Light breaks into your dark places, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks

Marriage in the Middle

Imagine you and the person you’ve fallen in love with load the back of a pickup truck with your history and cross into the land of marriage. The two of you plan to explore every inch of the terrain, learn everything you can about this new country to which you have a brand new passport.

A few miles in, you discover that it’s a strange landscape. Unpredictable. Ever-changing. And definitely not a place to settle.

Settle into complacency or defeat or self-centeredness, I mean.

Because if you settle . . . if you stop discovering . . . if you get distracted from learning all you can about love’s terrain . . . if heartache or anger or trauma flatten you . . . if you dodge . . .

if you don’t keep moving forward together . . .

well,

you may find yourself stuck in relational mud.

Most of us have been there a time or two. Or we’re up to our shiny chrome hubs right now. You know, the muck from twenty or thirty or forty years of marriage. Patterns or loss or brokenness that may make us question the poet Robert Browning, who, in the first stanza of his poem “Rabbi Ben Ezra” wrote this:

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith “A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!”

So what’s a couple to do?

Enter author Dorothy Littell Greco. With candor, courage, and unflinching disclosures, this marriage coach brings a tow truck of hope into our boggy relational landscapes in her new book Marriage in the Middle: Embracing Midlife Surprises, Challenges, and Joys.

This is not your typical “how to” marriage book. Nor is it an idealistic one. With practical, research-based data and heart-wrenching illustrations from both her own and other couples’ marriages, she tackles the disequilibrium that long-married couples can encounter from their forties into their sixties. Assuring us we’re not alone, she then offers encouragement and strategies to keep us traveling love’s road.

This book is packed with practical ways we can thrive, regardless of what baggage we’re still hauling around in the back of that pickup, and regardless of how life’s road has battered our togetherness.

And she reminds us that God will help us employ those strategies.

She covers heavy-hitting topics, including disappointment, caregiving, trauma and loss, aging, connection, sex, and community, cutting to the core of issues (dare I say) every couple married for any length of time will encounter.

Then she offers realistic, true, hope-filled guidance we can take to the bank.

My favorite? Her chapter on attachment.

I’d love to hear which one resonates most with you.

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The path through.

“God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out . . .”

—1 Corinthians 10:13

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How to wear a sunrise.

“It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper . . .”

—Revelation 21:11

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Wedding dress.

“His bride has made herself ready.”

—Revelation 19:7

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Liminal.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth . . .”

—Revelation 21:1

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Because of Jesus. A blessed Easter to you, friends. He is Risen!

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks

FINAL PROOF

Loved hearing from so many of you this week—asking for updates on Sugar Birds, sharing the fun. THANK YOU so much for all your interest and encouragement! :).

This week held another huge milestone. Ready for a sneak peek? . . .

THIS!!! It’s the cover for the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy)—which goes to press this week. Marketing and publicity teams will share this almost-final copy to spread word about the book throughout the land.

You’ve also been asking me when and where you can preorder Sugar Birds, so here you go: links!

You can order NOW at any one of these locations (or at your favorite local bookstore, of course). You won’t be charged until the book launches on August 3, 2021.

Thanks so much for your enthusiasm. I’m grateful.

Village Books, Bellingham and Lynden

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Bookshop.org

( I hope the story nests in your hearts.)

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In posts from earlier this week, here’s a glimpse of the land where Sugar Birds comes to life.

Water off a duck’s back.

“Love . . . is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.”

—1 Corinthians 13:4

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Hovercraft.

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Teenager—out on a limb.

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine . . .”

—Isaiah 30:1

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When you can see dawn’s breath.

“And out of the north the cold.”

—Job 37:9

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Hope you can get outside this week, friends. Thanks for stopping by.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks

Shift Change: Poemy Thoughts

Winter’s dissolving.

Over our heads, Pacific Flyway

flocks stretch for miles,

those widgeons, godwits, geese,

bound for northern nests

where they’ll lay their beginnings.

In this cold, storm-broken world,

everywhere, everywhere, intrepid birds rally

toward a season of firsts.

Earthbound, I watch the shift.

My resolve drafting their flight.

Will you join me?

We can slipstream our own newness.

What will mine be?

Yours?

Let’s follow the beauties,

the true things.

Choose them regardless.

Nest in Hope.

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The above, illustrated in posts from earlier this week:

Wing theme.

“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love?”

—Job 39:13

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Love, underfoot.

“So remember this and keep it firmly in mind: The LORD is God both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other.”

—Deuteronomy 4:39

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Out for groceries.

(Check those talons!)

“…Your heavenly Father feeds them.”—Matthew 6:26b

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Kilroy, here.

(Mt. Shuksan sunrise.)

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.”

—Psalm 143:8

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Thanks for reading, friends. And for traveling the seasons with me. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks

SUGAR BIRDS’ Artists

You absorbed the reviews of an engaging new novel. Heard the buzz on it from other readers. Then you stopped by your local bookshop to buy it—or you ordered online, or checked it out at the library. Now, at last, that book is in your hands. If you’re like me, you may cradle a new novel expectantly, trace its title with your fingertips, drink in the cover art and copy, scan the front matter—all in anticipation of your dive into a fresh, new fictional world.

And, also like me—before I wrote books—you probably give little thought to the raft of experts and artisans who helped create the magic of holding that new novel. Those behind-the-scenes craftspeople who design and format the actual book . . . and those who illustrate it.

That’s why, sometimes, one simply must bring that amazing work front and center. Acknowledge it. Celebrate the artists.

As Sugar Birds nears production, I’m delighted to call out She Writes Press‘s Art Director Julie Metz, who designed Sugar Birds‘s exquisite cover, Book Designer Tabitha Lahr, the graphic artist responsible for the book’s beautiful layout and formatting, and artist Emma VandeVoort, who drew the frontispiece map of Sugar Birds’ imagined PNW landscape.

True artists, these women. I think you’ll agree.

I’m grateful.

And advance reviews are starting to come in!

“Sugar Birds is a powerful coming-of-age story of betrayal and loss, rebellion and anger, friendship, forgiveness and redemption, all woven into a testament to the wondrous natural world. . . two heroines’ journeys packed into one heart-pounding read. Highly recommended!”

—CHANTICLEER REVIEWS

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Spring’s making her entrance! A few posts from earlier this week:

When you outgrow your jab.

“See! The winter is past . . . “

—Song of Songs 2:11

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Baldie Nuptials.

“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”

—Song of Songs 6:3

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Island dwellers.

“Sing a new song to the Lord; sing His praise from the ends of the earth!. . .you islands with your inhabitants.”

—Isaiah 42:10

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Ferrous gluconate.

(How to take your iron.)

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Thanks for stopping by, friends.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

If I Could Fly

Even if I could fly, a peregrine falcon’s 200 mph stoop speed wouldn’t get me there fast enough. Not to New Jersey or California at bedtime.

Not in time to read to my grands.

Fortunately, there’s a solution. Allow me to hawk a wonderful site—and tell you how it works for us.

It’s called READEO.COM, and it gives those of us who may be thousands of miles away from the kids we love a way to read picture books together. If you’ve ever tried to read to preschoolers online, you know how challenging it can be to read, pause, turn the book to show illustrations to that faraway kid, AND keep the child ENGAGED, right?

Readeo has solved all that for us.

Most evenings at the east coast littles’ bedtime, their parents and I log on. Kids settle on couch or bed. After we visit or sing for a minute—or five—on FaceTimey screens at the top, we scroll through an inviting collection of age-sorted books (Readeo offers hundreds) to choose the night’s reads. Reminds me of library visits when their dad was young.

And then we dive into the stories. There’s no place I’d rather be, unless it’s by a glowy fire with a child tucked under each arm, books across our laps—with no screens between us.

Readeo’s a hoot with our west coast family, too. Their eldest is reading now, so I settle in and listen while she chooses a story and reads it to her brother and me. I can hear her mama’s sweet voice at that age.

Couldn’t be better.

When the last book cover closes, our goodnight kisses wing toward the camera. I’m pretty sure I feel theirs land.

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More winged things (and a sunrise) from earlier this week:

Huddle.

“Live in harmony with one another.”

–Romans 12:16

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The way through.

“You are a God who does what is right, and you smooth out the path ahead of them.”

—Isaiah 26:7

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When a birthday means birding.

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Rock-a-Bye.

“Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?”

—Job 39:27

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Thanks for coming over, friends. So glad you stopped by.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks

Meet Sugar Birds’ Audiobook Narrator!

For two days, I read Sugar Birds into the studio microphone. Guided by a seasoned producer of many audiobooks, I dug deep, tried hard. But by the end of the second day, I had to face facts: some of my characters’ voices simply sounded like . . . well, like me, pretending. Amateurish.

“I know a reader . . . ,” producer Bob said. He’s a kind man, who had been honoring my aspirations to read it myself.

But he’d heard enough. So had I.

“Who?” I asked. “She good?”

He smiled. “You decide.” He pulled up a segment from a recent recording.

Within fifteen seconds, my eyes widened in recognition and awe. “I know that voice,” I said, hanging on her every word.

“Jayne Entwistle,” he said. “Just moved to the area from L.A. Easy for her to work remotely from here.”

By that evening, she had the manuscript in hand, and I waited, restless, to hear if she would accept the project.

Within the week she contacted me. “I sobbed through the last twenty pages!” she wrote. “What a beautiful, gripping, fascinating book you have written. It is SO, SO GOOD! I couldn’t put it down.”

Though the fog of my shock, I realized she was saying “yes.”

Fast forward: she’s now sent me a couple of concept clips, and I’m delighted with her work. Not surprising. Take a look at her official bio:

Jayne Entwistle is an award-winning audiobook narrator known most notably for her narration of the Flavia De Luce series, by Alan Bradley. She received the prestigious Odyssey Award for The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, and the Odyssey Honour Award for The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, by Julie Berry. In addition to receiving several Earphones Awards, her narration has landed on Audiofile Magazine‘s list of Best Audiobooks of the Year.

When not immersed in fabulous books, Jayne can be found on-screen in television shows such as The Good Place; Feud: Bette & Joan; You’re the Worst; and Maron. Originally from the North of England, Jayne currently lives in the Pacific Northwest.

She’ll begin recording in early March.

Enough said. I feel another happy dance coming on. (You can preorder Sugar Birds: A Novel at your favorite bookstore, Amazon, or HERE.)

And, gathered below, more posts from earlier this week:

Detox..

“Create in me a clean heart, O God . . .”

—Psalm 51:10

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Fir seed tadpole, snow pond.

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The Waiting Season.

“You care for the land and water it . . .You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops.”

—Psalm 65:9-10

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Lacy boudoire.

“The king has brought me into his chambers.”

—Song of Solomon 1:4

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Welcome friends. So glad you’re here!

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks

Finding Napoleon

Oh my. This book: Finding Napoleon.

Born from a secret manuscript.

At age 26, Napoleon Bonaparte wrote the scant twenty pages—and kept Clisson hidden all his life, even carrying the seedling story with him into his final exile on the island of St. Helena.

When author Margaret Rodenberg learned of the story’s existence in 1999, she began a passionate research journey that carried her through decades and across tens of thousands of miles. Her goal: to flesh out the infant narrative about a young Napoleon and overlap it with an intimate, imagined retelling of the deposed emperor’s final years.

And wow, does she ever do it well.

Start to finish, the book is fascinating. Memorable. The characterization is superb, the well-paced storyline infused with betrayal, intrigue, tender love, and bawdy realities. With true artistry, the author gave me access not only to the brilliant mind and heart of Napoleon, but also to his resilient, wounded mistress Albine and his devoted protégée Tobyson, along with the settings that restricted, expanded, and shaped them all.

The story sent me scrambling to learn more—despite the fact that I have never had more than a yawning interest in Napoleon.

The author accomplishes what every historical novelist surely hopes to do, as she not only transports her readers into a past age, but awakens the lungs and limbs, thoughts and souls of her characters so profoundly that they live and breathe within inches of those readers.

I read an advance digital copy of this book with an opportunity to give it an independent review. I’ve since pre-ordered a hard copy. When it releases on April 6, I want this book on my shelf.

And in other scenes posted this week . . .

Island in Sky Lake.

“…on earth as it is in heaven.”

–Matthew 6:10

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B is for Blessing.

“From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.”

—John 1:16

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Scene seen.”

. . .for I watch over my word to accomplish it.”

—Jeremiah 1:12

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Winter, ambushed.

“And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.”

—Deuteronomy 28:2

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Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

Beleaguered

As I write this, a relentless northeaster pummels our county with gusts up to 40 mph. Trees bow and fall in the wind, as branches snap and fly in the frigid air. Ambient temperatures in the teens freeze local ponds and turn the ground to stone. With wind chill below zero, even a dog walk is nothing short of brutal. Predicted heavy snowfall should begin within hours.

I haul quartered rounds of birch and alder from the shed, feed our wood stove, and hunker down, resigned to staying inside.

Besides, the house needs cleaning. Soup ingredients await assembly. Accumulated laundry, heaped, too closely resembles Yosemite’s Half Dome.

I have no interest in tending any of them. If I have to stay indoors, I’d much rather curl up by that fire and read. I long to dodge the press of this weather, of isolation, of medical and political tempests. Storms too big for me. I exhale, releasing them into God’s cupped hands.

Time with Him improves my outlook, but my body lags. Resisting torpor, I search for an audiobook. Given today’s conditions, I know just the one.

Cold Mountain.

Two decades ago I brought a paperback copy of the book home from the library, eager to read author Charles Frazier’s acclaimed prose. The first pages told me that his dense style asked for a focused read, so I set the book aside for an undistracted time, then never got to it. When the library’s due date arrived, I returned the book, unfinished. A few years later I saw the movie and never thought of the hard copy again.

But recently an email arrived from Chirp offering the Cold Mountain audiobook on sale for $4.99. (Chirpbooks.com offers a huge assortment of audiobooks at ridiculously low prices—with no subscription required.) Needless to say, I snapped it up.

Today, I open my Chirp app and listen. Charles Frazier’s sonorous voice travels straight through my earbuds, reading his harrowing narrative in language so elegant, so exquisite, I am transported away from current howling times to Civil War Appalachia, where characters and events catch and hold me, certain to populate my perspective for years.

Hours later, I re-enter February 2021. I promptly order a hard copy of the book, just so my eyes and fingertips can connect with phrasing as beautifully crafted as any I’ve read. Just so I can remember the sound of the story.

When I look up, the soup’s on. Laundry’s washed, dried, and stowed.

Someone’s been cleaning.

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Beleaguered.

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And in other posts this week . . .

When North breaks loose and lands nearby.

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Touchdown.

(Juvenile baldie)

“All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.”

—1 Corinthians 9:25

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Hanky.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.”

—Revelation 21:4

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Powder Coated.

(Mt. Baker)

“Put on the full armor of God . . .”

—Ephesians 6:11

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Thanks for reading, friends. I’m so glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks

Imagine Heaven

Recently, a friend and I were talking our way along trails through old growth forest—just as we have every Tuesday for months now. This day, our topics ranged far and wide, landing on recent events, people, and ideas profoundly affecting us, but over which we have little, if any, influence.

This particular Tuesday, despite the layer of leaves and fir needles beneath our feet, uncertainty made us feel as if we were walking on air.

And not in a good way.

More as if the ground we’ve counted on was collapsing beneath us.

But when she asked me if I’d read engineer-turned-pastor John Burke’s Imagine Heaven, our conversation changed course. Somewhere in my brain, sun broke through. My gaze shifted from what won’t last, to what will.

She sent me a link later that day, and I soon had the book in my hands.

Subtitled Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You, the book has close to 5,000 five-star ratings on Amazon. I am enthusiastically adding mine to that number.

I imagine you’ve heard of near-death experiences (NDEs). Accounts of people who died, temporarily left their bodies, and then revived, are part of common lore everywhere. People who hear those stories respond with reactions ranging from outright dismissal, to systematic study, to embrace. I have always landed somewhere between the poles, viewing NDEs with vaguely hopeful curiosity.

Until now.

Now I’ve learned what’s been happening right under our noses. According to the International Association for Near-death Studies, as many as fifteen percent of all people have had a near-death experience. That means that literally millions have caught personal glimpses of their options when this life is over. They have seen the landscapes, have met people and beings at otherworldly locales.

Have been prompted to choose where they’ll live after they die.

Because, those who have experienced NDEs will tell you, when this life ends, personal existence doesn’t.

The author lays it all out:

First, he recounts gripping near-death experiences of credible people—with nothing to gain (and much to lose) from telling their stories.

Second, he points out similarities between NDEs. Regardless of upbringing, age, nationality, education, or anything that can make people different from one another, their NDEs were uncannily alike. Horrors bore striking resemblances. Ecstasies shared wondrous features. The same locations and pathways appeared in story after story.

As did God.

Third, once he peeled away NDE participants’ interpretations of their experiences, the author compared their descriptions to scriptural accounts of heaven and of life after death—and saw profound corroboration with the Christian Bible, even though many telling their stories were of other faiths.

Remarkable. And either encouraging . . . or food for thought.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens next, read this book. And if you haven’t, you may want to read it anyway.

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Pics and videos this week: here you go!

Brimful Bertranda.

(Bertranda Creek, WA)

“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.”

—Isaiah 43:2

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Won’t be long now.

“Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer . . . “

—Revelation 6:11

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A peck on the cheek.

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Beyond us.

“And God said . . . let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.”

—Genesis 1:20

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Thanks for imagining with me, friends. I’m glad you’re here.

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Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks