Phyllis Edgerly Ring's Blog, page 20
January 3, 2016
The beginnings in the endings
Up the hill to the castle we went to celebrate the “birth.”
What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
~ T.S. Eliot
A little over a month after the publication of the novel that has absorbed my focus for the past eight years, I find that the days feel like an incongruous blend of the unreal, yet also fully realized.
Back in September, I was swamped in galley files of the book to proof, corrections to track, publishing details to tend – to remember at all. Thank heaven for my publishing “doula” Marina Kirsch. Those fast-moving weeks of September and October felt the way seasonal work in retail stores often does – compressed, nonstop, persevering action reminiscent of those performers who keep a dozen plates spinning on skinny sticks.
Hotel Schwan in Wertheim fills the two white buildings to the left, with the tower between, and a gate into town at the bottom. The little light halfway up is “my” window.
Then, early one morning in November, as I sat in a tower that holds a gateway into the walled old town where I lived in Germany as a child, the book suddenly “published” before my eyes. The only experience that has ever felt remotely similar was the sudden-seeming delivery and arrival of each of our children after long hours of labor.
A few of the local swans.
When the book “birthed,” I was sitting beside a tiny window that has likely been in that stone wall for many hundreds of years. The table beside it was the first place I found an internet connection that morning.
Hotel Schwan, where we were staying, is the first place my family came to back in January of 1960, the first home I knew in Germany. In a world where nothing stays the same, it’s an immense comfort to revisit the Schwan and still feel so at home. I can easily overlook a little spotty internet access.
I’m a fool for “signs” of all kinds. When I spotted the names of my book’s two main characters on my first day in Germany, it was a fun surprise.
Now, decades after that first stay, in the week of my 60th birthday, the book, much like a child, “chose” to be born into publication. It was as wonder-filled as it was shocking.
And as the novel and I have gone forward together into the world in the weeks since, I’m reminded of just what births really are: the beginning in the ending. For a mother, the end of a pregnancy is a landmark event, much as a destination feels like the end of a journey.
And then, like that gateway over which I was sitting beside that historic little window in the tower, it reveals itself as a whole new beginning. I’m still soaking in the enormous spiritual metaphors (for me, at least) in the physical setting of where I actually received this publishing experience.
When I began writing what became The Munich Girl, one very wise voice advised me to reach for a style in the unfolding of its story that would be “holographic, would know the end in the beginning, and use the words to prove it.”. Whether or not that goal was reached will remain to be seen, but as one cycle of life closes and another opens, I know that the vision of that accompanied me to the very last page.
Sometimes, rather like mothers and infants, endings and beginnings seem to have a conjoined world of their very own. 
Find more about The Munich Girl: A Novel of the Legacies That Outlast War here:
December 30, 2015
Soon, she’ll be virtual, too
Very soon, for those who are asking, The Munich Girl: A Novel of the Legacies That Outlast War will be out in its Kindle version.
Fellow author Reiner Lomb has taken his print copy far away to the beaches of Brazil for some holiday reading. I love seeing readers’ photos of the book, wherever they roam with it, so please keep sending them.
And my gratitude is renewed each day when I see the response that readers share through their reviews posted at book-selling websites, blogs, and Goodreads.
5.0 out of 5 stars Historical Fiction with a Memoir Feel…
ByKGR on December 10, 2015
“The Munich Girl is a work of historical fiction that reads and feels like a memoir. So many of the story’s details are historically correct that it is hard to determine where the facts leave off and the fiction begins.
Beautifully told, and exquisitely written, each page unfolds like the wrapping over a gem. The settings are vivid, the characters come to life. It is a rather involved story between Anna’s existence with a narcissistic husband, the budding relationship between her and Hannes, her mother’s story that neatly intertwines with Eva’s. There are also the premonition-like dreams and the chapters written in her mother’s hand.
Told in a focused and experienced style, every page draws you in further into the story. Hard to put down, harder to forget.”
http://www.amazon.com/review/REY9CF7UWIVP9/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0996546987
December 26, 2015
Protection from our own ignorance
“Stranded Lighthouse” image: Kathy Gilman
“…when thou traversest the regions of the world, thou wilt conclude that all progress is the result of association and cooperation, while ruin is the outcome of animosity and hatred. Notwithstanding this, the world of humanity doth not take warning, doth not wake from the slumber of heedlessness. Man is still causing differences, quarrels and strife in order to marshal the cohorts of war and, with his legions, rush into the field of bloodshed and slaughter.”
~’Abdu’l-Bahá
“Consider the pettiness of men’s minds.
They ask for that which injureth
them, and cast away the thing that profiteth them.
They are, indeed, of
those that are far astray.
We find some men desiring liberty, and priding themselves therein. Such men are in the depths of ignorance.
Liberty must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench.
Thus warneth you He Who is the Reckoner, the All-Knowing.
Know ye that the embodiment of liberty and its symbol is the animal.
That which beseemeth man is submission unto such restraints as will protect him from his own ignorance, and guard him against the harm of the mischief-maker.
“Little Lamb Laying Low” image: Kathy Gilman
Liberty causeth man to overstep the bounds of propriety, and to infringe on the dignity of his station. It debaseth him to the level of extreme depravity and wickedness.
Regard men as a flock of sheep that need a shepherd for their protection. This, verily, is the truth, the certain truth. We approve of liberty in certain circumstances, and refuse to sanction it in others. We, verily, are the All-Knowing.”
~ Bahá’u’lláh
December 22, 2015
BoomerCafé asks, “Why Eva Braun?”
I’m very grateful to author Eric Mondschein and BoomerCafé for featuring my novel, The Munich Girl, this week.
Here’s one question, and a link to the rest of the article follows.
BC: What message are you trying to convey to readers?
PR: At least two.
One is that there is a reality that transcends appearances, and we miss a lot of the truth because we don’t investigate it more completely.
This is also a story about outlasting that chaos and confusion of war and destruction by valuing, and believing in, the ultimate triumph of all of the good that we are willing to contribute to building together. Many Germans did this, though until recently, their stories have remained unknown.
The novel is also about the eventual homecoming we must all make to our truest self, and the role that others often mysteriously play in that process.
Read the BoomerCafé article here:
http://www.boomercafe.com/2015/12/22/baby-boomer-author-uncovers-world-war-ii-intrigue/
More about The Munich Girl: A Novel of the Legacies That Outlast War:
December 20, 2015
The ways of a greater part
GLEANINGS FOUND HERE AND THERE:
You have the need and the right to spend part of your life caring for your soul.
It is not easy… To be a soulful person means to go against all the pervasive, prove-yourself values of our culture and instead treasure what is unique and internal and valuable in yourself and your own personal evolution.
~ Jean Shinoda Bolen
Discipline is not a means of accomplishing more, but a stance of patience and curiosity to witness more of the faces of God in which we are already contained and cared for.
~ Andrew Shier
With image thanks to Following Atticus: http://tomandatticus.blogspot.com/
Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice.
I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment.
It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint.
~ Henri Nouwen
Image: Tobey A. Ring
Yin is the receptive, feeling, compassionate force within.
It knows the wisdom of surrender and chooses to yield, even when everyone else is getting ahead.
For Yin, withdrawing is entering. … Like an ecosystem, Yin considers all counterparts essential.
So ideas that emerge from this level of imagination serve more than the individual cause – they serve the great ecosystem upon which we are all dependent.
~ Toko-pa
December 15, 2015
Becoming a gathering of heaven
Photo: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DKirkupDesigns
GLEANINGS FOUND HERE AND THERE:
The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
~ William James
Evolution is transformation. And transformation is happening all the time. It happens as we learn new things … Evolution is not an automatic ever-ascending spiritual conveyor-belt, but the result of our ability to face reality, adjust, adapt, and change.
~ Christine DeLorey
Quiilt: Joan Haskell
In recognizing yourself as life itself, you are put right-side up. You freshly live your life, rather than thinking it and then trying to live according to those thoughts. …The thinking mind becomes the servant — rather than the master — to the direct experience of life.
~ Gangaji
And finally, a blessing and prayer for every season:
O God! Dispel all those elements which are the cause of discord, and prepare for us all those things which are the cause of unity and accord!
O God! Descend upon us Heavenly Fragrance and change this gathering into a gathering of Heaven!
Grant to us every benefit and every food.
Prepare for us the Food of Love! Give us the Food of Knowledge! Bestow on us the Food of Heavenly Illumination!
~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
December 14, 2015
When giving is receiving
Painting: “Wings of Freedom”
from Diane Kirkup / D. Kirkup Designs.
One year as the December holiday season approached, life gave me a precious experience in giving. One of the very last things I’d bought for my father the previous year was a Christmas tree. He’d been struggling to make peace with entering assisted-living care as he also entered the final months of his life. I was feverishly trying to create Christmas around him – in fast-forward — while my heart seemed to be simultaneously breaking in half.
My daughter helped me find an artificial tree, the very last one the store had, with twinkling tiny lights already attached. After my father died the following June, that tree and the box it came in got stockpiled, along with many other things I wasn’t ready to face quite yet. Finally, as the next Christmas neared, I knew it was time to pack it up, along with other things I needed to bring to the thrift shop. But it was very, very hard to think about taking it there.
Find this design at https://www.etsy.com/shop/DKirkupDesigns?page=2 – or enter below for a chance to win.
The following day, I drove a car packed to the gunwales to the local secondhand thrift store, feeling the weight of the grief and sadness that had been stirred by sorting through so many of my father’s things.
Then as I was unpacking the tree from my car, they magically appeared — a kind-faced young man with his little girl clutching his hand. They came up to me tentatively and asked very politely whether, if I planned to leave the tree there anyway, it might be OK for them to take it.
I hugged them both spontaneously then said that, of COURSE, I knew that it would delight my father if they were to have it, and I hoped that they were going to have an absolutely wonderful Christmas. The best they’d ever had.
Then I noticed the woman who was with them, standing off to the side. I was thinking that they all must think me crazy when she gave me a warm smile and thanked me, and then the other two, still a bit stunned by my response, began thanking me, as well. Her smile reminded me of my mother’s, I have to say.
In a little book called “The Hidden Words,” Baha’u’llah says of divine design, “To give and to be generous are attributes of Mine.”
BUY BOOK HERE:
http://www.amazon.com/Life-First-Sight-Finding-Details-ebook/dp/B00B5MR9B0/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1385482351
What a gift it is to us when life allows our giving to be the precise answer to someone’s need.
From Life at First Sight: Finding the Divine in the Details
Through Dec. 18, 2015 – Enter to win the trees pictured above and a signed copy of the book by sending an email to info@phyllisring.com with “Trees” in the subject line.
See more of Diane Kirkup’s work at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/dkirkupdesigns
December 11, 2015
The Book’s the Thing is my kind hostess
Erika at The Book’s the Thing Blog has kindly included a Guest Post from me this week.
She’s also offering a Giveaway for a signed copy of The Munich Girl.
The Guest Post follows, and here’s where you can enter the rafflecopter giveaway (US only).
Coming Full-circle with The Munich Girl
I had the opportunity to spend time in Germany just as my novel, The Munich Girl, came full-circle to publication this year. 
In the previous weeks, as I’d reviewed the book’s galleys, the story’s scenes drew me back into settings I will carry with me always. Some of them have been a part of my inner geography from earliest childhood.
Others are actual locations in which the story takes place.
Photo courtesy Penny Sansevieri / Author Marketing Experts – http://www.amarketingexpert.com/penny-sansevieri/
And many of these, from cobblestone alleys to Alpine vistas, tiny villages to city squares filled with symphonies of church bells, are ones in which I did the actual writing.
Much like the book’s protagonist, Anna, I repeatedly experience the many kinds of homecomings, spiritual and material, that life brings to us. Much like her, I often find myself in a kind of unbelieving daze as I sit in the same café I’ve known since childhood. Two years, ago, and maybe also five, I sat there capturing down pieces of a story that has always felt more like finding my way toward a puzzle’s finished image than any kind of strategic plotting.
If the remedy for feeling out-of-sync in life is to reside in the moment, then we are all here today as I type this: my child self, sitting alongside my parents; that story-struck one who aspired to go the distance with wherever the writing process led with this novel’s story (and wondering, at times, whether I truly would); and my self today, blessed to have reached a point of completion.
Read the rest at: http://booksthething.com/2015/12/10/guest-post-giveaway-phyllis-edgerly-ring-author-of-the-munich-girl/comment-page-1/#comment-1660
December 9, 2015
We each hold the key to a kind world
As Winter overtakes my days, I love hearing from readers.
Most are responding to The Munich Girl, a story with its share of wintry scenes. But some have also been visiting the world of my earlier novel, Snow Fence Road.
One reviewer’s words about its story continue to strike a chord:
“One of the things I also enjoyed was that this took place in a kind world, with supportive and loving folks, despite their past difficulties, even with each other.”
This is the reason that I write – from the belief that this is the world that all of our hearts want – and that all of our hearts are capable of helping to bring it into being. Our minds can be reinforced in a thousand ways to believe that this is unrealistic and impossible.
But our hearts know so very much better. They always hold the key to that kinder world they can envision, with love. What helps them to act on what they know?
Our experience of life in these times can feel harsh and cold and unyieding. Those are the times when our hearts can feel stricken, fearful, confounded.
But like the sun, even in winter, there is always, each day, that waiting possibility of “radiating light throughout the world and illuminating your own darknesses” so that “your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself and all beings.”
These words of Lao Tzu’s, shared a long time ago, capture the timeless essence conveyed in what we remember in every new Season of Light: the light does, indeed, shine forth most brightly, unmistakably, in darkness. 
A Giveaway of a signed copy of The Munich Girl: A Novel of the Legacies That Outlast War is offered this week at The Book’s the Thing:
Find more about the novel at:
We hold the key to a kind world
As Winter overtakes my days, I love hearing from readers.
Most are responding to The Munich Girl, a story with its share of wintry scenes. But some have also been visiting the world of my earlier novel, Snow Fence Road.
One reviewer’s words about its story continue to strike a chord:
“One of the things I also enjoyed was that this took place in a kind world, with supportive and loving folks, despite their past difficulties, even with each other.”
This is the reason that I write – from the belief that this is the world that all of our hearts want – and that all of our hearts are capable of helping to bring it into being. Our minds can be reinforced in a thousand ways to believe that this is unrealistic and impossible.
But our hearts know so very much better. They always hold the key to that kinder world they can envision, with love. What helps them to act on what they know?
Our experience of life in these times can feel harsh and cold and unyieding. Those are the times when our hearts can feel stricken, fearful, confounded.
But like the sun, even in winter, there is always, each day, that waiting possibility of “radiating light throughout the world and illuminating your own darknesses” so that “your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself and all beings.”
These words of Lao Tzu’s, shared a long time ago, capture the timeless essence conveyed in what we remember in every new Season of Light: the light does, indeed, shine forth most brightly, unmistakably, in darkness.
A Giveaway of signed copies of The Munich Girl: A Novel of the Legacies That Outlast War is offered at Goodreads this month: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/164567-the-munich-girl-a-novel-of-the-legacies-that-outlast-war
Find more about the novel at:
