Curtiss Ann Matlock's Blog, page 4

We Have to Continually Remind Ourselves

I went in search of corroboration of the above C. S. Lewis quote, and found the entire passage from his book Mere Christianity. I copy it below, at the stretch of copyright.

The first step is to recognise the fact that your moods change. The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious readings and churchgoing are necessary parts of...

The Gray Days

Out beyond the large window in the living room, where I’m writing this, the day is gray. Gray sky, sometimes darker with misty rain, sometimes a lighter shade, the color of waiting for rain. It’s as if gray has been washed over everything, the very air gray. The birds–we have lots of birds with the temperatures balmy again–were flocking the feeder and trees in the backyard, twittering and singing and making a raucous, and suddenly they have gone quiet. A strange silence has fallen. No bird at th...

The Writer in Winter

Yes, it is cold here on the Gulf Coast. The Sunny South is sunny, but oh, my goodness, cold! It dipped to 18 degrees early Tuesday morning. And we had freezing rain that coated steps and formed large icicles, something not often seen this far south. When I went out, I dressed in insulated overalls left over from my years in rural Oklahoma, several sweaters, boots, and a neck scarf. At the grocery store, two people I know laughed at me, but I said, “There’s no need to be cold,” and I was perfectl...

Start Where You are, with writing and Everything

I read this bit of writing advice this morning: Start where you are.

It seems an evident fact. I can’t start over there, if I’m not over there. I always wish I was over there–wiser, far more cleaver and knowledgeable and organized, not only about whatever topic I’m writing about, but about everything. (That word ‘more’ seems to produce an abundance of dissatisfaction.) But the unchangeable truth of life is that power is only at the present moment where I am. That is where I’m living and breat...

What Are You Hoping for This New Year?

Make New Year’s goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come.  ~ Melody Beattie, The Language of Letting Go.

Sometimes I find it hard to be interested in fully living. Sometimes I am dead-dog-tired of the life struggle and would like to hide from living beneath a quilt, while I enter a fake world of comedy movies or television shows th...

Don’t Stomp the Little Tomato Plant

Christmas is over. After years of experience, I’m no longer shocked how fast it passed, nor am I sad, as I used to be. I’m more practiced at seeing the beauty and opportunity of these quiet days between Christmas and January, to rest and reflect and nurture new ideas, hopes, and dreams.

Right now my ideas for the coming year are small seeds, like the one that started that little tomato plant in the photo. That little thing sprang up at the edge of a waist-high planter in which I’ve tried grow...

What Does Christmas Mean to You?

So I was looking for something on the internet, and we know what a sucking black hole that can be. Just at the ‘all is lost moment’, as we novelists term it, I stretched and grabbed hold of the couch leg and pulled myself back out, bringing with me these gems:

“What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.”
— Agnes Mae Pharo,...

You Just Can’t Make too Much of Christmas.

The above nativity set is old and a bit chipped, but the years and imperfections have made it priceless with memories. We had bought our second house; my husband had been promoted, and we were moving up, but still we had to count our pennies. I bought a nativity set kit from Herrschners. Do any of you remember them? They used to have a catalog that would arrive in my mailbox, and I would snatch it up and pursue it in the same manner back in those days that we did the Christmas catalogs. I spent ...

Christmas in a Small Town

Last weekend, I enjoyed a fabulous time at the annual Christmas gathering of a group of women campers (correct–no men). We come in large and small RVs, hauling our travel trailers, or camping in cars and tents, from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas, to the private campground of Washington Parish Fairgrounds, in the small town of Franklinton, Louisiana. We assembled our rigs on the grass beneath live oak and pine trees in much the same manner as did pioneer wagons in a circle.

We com...

Christmas Memories

Today I have a post, Christmas is Hope, over at bestselling author Liz Flaherty’s Window Over the Sink blog. I write about the hopeful women heroines of my three Christmas stories, and how my mother inspired the creation of those characters. You can read the post here.

Maybe some of you read the post I wrote last year for Liz’s Window Over the Sink. I, of course, had completely forgotten what all I’d written. And I wrote this year’s essay for Window before I read last year’s. When I did r...