Beth K. Vogt's Blog, page 58

In Others’ Words: Light the Flame

This quote encompasses two life-changers for me: other people and gratitude.

If I tried to list all the people who have rekindled my spark when it has gone out … well, this would be the never-ending blog post — and I’m certain I would still forget someone.

People have prayed for me, shared hugs at just the right moment, spoken an uncannily timely word … and sometimes they’ve just been there when my soul’s ached and my heart’s flame flickered.

And the year I devoted to practicing gratitude? That year changed me on a soul-deep level. This glass-half-empty gal determined to give thanks in all things. I wrote thank you lists to God — and you know what? My perspective changed. I saw all the reasons I had to be grateful. The  glass overflowed.

So yes, Albert Schweitzer got it right: we should be thankful for those who have “lighted the flame within us.”

In Others’ Words: I say this with all sincerity, friends: Your comments encourage me daily. Thank you. My prayer is that you are surrounded with others who  rekindle your flame with words of hope and affirmation.

The honor of rekindling another’s flame #lifequote #hope
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With Gratitude: Rekindled #lifequotes #hope
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In Others’ Words: The Value of Nothing

It’s been a year of deadlines for me … going from one deadline to the next to the next … and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Add in the non-writing parts of life and there’s not been a lot of “doing nothing” in 2014.

I often find those quiet moments of “nothing” in the middle of the night when I’m awake and everyone else in my house — including all the assorted doggies — are asleep. Silence is indeed golden and often toasted with a cup of my favorite tea. (Constant Comment, anyone? Or Lady Gray?)

And what do I hear when I’m “not bothering“?

Whispers of conversations that encouraged my heart.

Snatches of laughter … always the music of laughter.

The sweet nonsense chatter of my GRANDdaughter, who in her mind, is making complete sense.

The mind-mentions of friends’ names … which turn into prayers for them.

But mostly I savor the stillness, the hush, that’s overtaken the house. There’s not much to hear … but there’s a knowing that loved ones are resting … and God is still awake.

In Your Words: When is the last time you did nothing? What did you hear when you listened “to all the things you can’t hear”? What do you think is the value of “not bothering”?

The value of nothing #lifequotes #AAMilne
Listening to what you can’t hear #lifequotes #winniethepooh

 

I’m celebrating the release of my e-novella, A November Bride, with a Rafflecopter giveaway! Enter for a chance to win a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card and much more!! Go here to enter or click on the book cover image!

Enter @bethvogt’s #Rafflecopter giveaway celebrating A November Bride! http://tinyurl.com/nzcba7j #chrisfic

In Others’ Worth: The Value of Nothing

It’s been a year of deadlines for me … going from one deadline to the next to the next … and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Add in the non-writing parts of life and there’s not been a lot of “doing nothing” in 2014.

I often find those quiet moments of “nothing” in the middle of the night when I’m awake and everyone else in my house — including all the assorted doggies — are asleep. Silence is indeed golden and often toasted with a cup of my favorite tea. (Constant Comment, anyone? Or Lady Gray?)

And what do I hear when I’m “not bothering“?

Whispers of conversations that encouraged my heart.

Snatches of laughter … always the music of laughter.

The sweet nonsense chatter of my GRANDdaughter, who in her mind, is making complete sense.

The mind-mentions of friends’ names … which turn into prayers for them.

But mostly I savor the stillness, the hush, that’s overtaken the house. There’s not much to hear … but there’s a knowing that loved ones are resting … and God is still awake.

In Your Words: When is the last time you did nothing? What did you hear when you listened “to all the things you can’t hear”? What do you think is the value of “not bothering”?

 

[Tweet “The Value of Doing Nothing #lifequotes #AAMilne “]
[Tweet “Listening to Things You Can’t Hear #lifequotes #winniethepooh”]

I’m celebrating the release of my e-novella, A November Bride, with a Rafflecopter giveaway! Enter for a chance to win a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card and much more!! Go here to enter or click on the book cover image!

 

In Others’ Words: In the Moment

Most of my days start with a good 3 1/2 mile walk with my friend Mary. We walk and talk — and we look for “a little bit of pretty,” as we’ve come to call it.

It all started when we noticed a wooden bench in a yard we were walking past — a little bit of pretty, even though one arm on the bench was broken. Mary and I talked about that phrase — a little bit of pretty — and each morning after that our eyes — and our  hearts — were wide open for more “pretties.”

Looking for beauty somewhere … anywhere … everywhere changed our walks. We’d walked the same 3 1/2 miles for weeks — sometimes clockwise, sometimes counterclockwise — but always the same streets. But now we were noticing things we hadn’t seen before.

Our perspectives changed.

And life is all about perspective.

I savored autumn a bit more this year as I walked and sought out each new a little bit of pretty. 

And being so intentional helped me face a few emotional and spiritual challenges, too.  Because, as Emerson says, there is beauty in each moment …

even if the beauty is in knowing the moment will pass.
Or knowing that you faced whatever challenge was in that moment — and conquered it.
Or stood up to the fear — and somehow sifted it through your fingers and found God’s unwavering peace that passes all understanding.
Maybe the beauty in a grief-filled moment was the silence of a friend who didn’t try to give you all the right answers … but instead, chose to just be with you.

In Your Words: What beautiful moments have you seen lately? 

The Beauty of Each Moment: Can You See It? #lifequotes #alittlebitofpretty
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What beautiful moments have you seen lately? #lifequotes #alittlebitofpretty
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I’m celebrating the release of my e-novella, A November Bride, with a Rafflecopter giveaway! Enter for a chance to win a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card and much more!! Go here to enter or click on the book cover image!

 

In Others’ Words: Broken Legacy

I used to handle difficulties this way:

I’d lay awake at night and think Just give me a minute. I’ll figure this out. 

I wasn’t praying — I was plotting. I wasn’t asking God for help because I was going to fix whatever was broken — a plan, a relationship, a dream — all by myself.

I’m older now and yes, I’m wiser — wise enough to know that I can’t fix fhings. Even when I try to do the right thing — when I do take time to pray and seek the counsel of others wiser than me — situations can go heartbreakingly wrong.

In my novel, Somebody Like You, I wrote about two twin brothers who ended up estranged from one another. This was a carefully planned plot point. What I never expected was that in an effort to have a more honest relationship with my family of origin, I would end up estranged from them. Every single one of them.

Talk about fingering fragments that simply will not go back together again … yeah. I can’t fix this.

It’s not a question of not wanting reconciliation. I do. But reconciliation isn’t a return to what was.

For now, I trust that God is working in me and in spite of me — that he’s not tossing my efforts into the trash and saying “Not good enough.”

I choose to believe that God is in this season of silence, of separation, and will somehow, some day, scuplt it into a beautifully broken legacy.

In Your Words: When have you seen the beauty of broken in your life? How has God stepped into your “breaking” with his beauty to create a legacy?

Our Breaking and God's Beauty #lifequotes #ElisaMorgan
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How God Creates a Beautifully Broken Legacy #lifequotes
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I’m celebrating the release of my e-novella, A November Bride, with a Rafflecopter giveaway! Enter for a chance to win a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card and much more!! Go here to enter or click on the book cover image!

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In Others’ Words: Words and Names

There were a lot of names being tossed around my house last weekend.

Not bad names — baby names. My daughter and son-in-love just found out they’re having a second daughter and, of course, it’s time to start the process of “What do think of ______”?

All sorts of names were offered and some suggestions were even added to their list of possibilities. It was fun, especially when someone found a peculiar name or an indecipherable name — think minimal vowels and an overabundance of consonants.

Being a novelist, I’m more attuned to names than most people. I’m naming the imaginary people populating my books — and then I have to remember those people’s names just as if I were going to send them a birthday card or a Christmas letter every year.

Names are powerful — given names that are often pondered over by our parents before we are born, as well as nicknames and endearments. I’ve loved some of my nicknames — and hated others. And yet, I considered nicknames important and made certain each of my kiddos had one — a special way of saying “I love you” that was all their own.

Yes, words have power — and names can be the most powerful use of words, for better or for worse.

In Your Words: What’s the meaning of your name? If you could change your name, what would you change it to? What do you think of nicknames?

The Power of a Name #lifequotes
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What Did You Call Me? The Power of Names #lifequotes
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I’m celebrating the release of my e-novella, A November Bride, with a Rafflecopter giveaway! Enter for a chance to win a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card and much more!! Go here to enter or click on the book cover image!

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In Others’ Words: To the Ordinary

Ah, the lure of the extraordinary moments.

When life is more than fine … beyond the best that I can imagine … lit up like a 4th of July sparkler.

Yes, I’m grateful for those moments.

And then there are the moments where life is … good.

When there are no dirty dishes in my sink because my husband, bless the man, filled the dishwasher and scrubbed the pots.

When snow is falling outside and I can enjoy the beauty of it because we have a south-facing driveway and rarely have to shovel it.

When my house is cluttered, yes, with stuff to do — but more, it is crowded with the people I love.

The ordinary moments of life. I don’t have to chase those. Lord, please help me be more mindful of the happiness they bring.

In Your Words: What ordinary moments are right there in front of you — filling your days with happiness? 

To the Ordinary Moments - and the happiness they bring #lifequotes #BreneBrown
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What ordinary moments fill your life with happiness? #lifequotes #BreneBrown
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I’m celebrating the release of my e-novella, A November Bride, with a Rafflecopter giveaway! Enter for a chance to win a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card and much more!! Go here to enter or click on the book cover image!

Enter @bethvogt's #Rafflecopter giveaway celebrating A November Bride! http://tinyurl.com/nzcba7j...
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In Others’ Words: Are You Listening?

There are days when my emotions ambush me.

I’m going through my day, doing what needs to be done. Not necessarily seizing the day, but making things happen. Feeling good. Satisfied, you know?

And then suddenly I realize my emotions are all out of whack and I can’t even tell you why. At that moment, if I had to name my emotion — one of them or all of them — I wouldn’t be able to.

Because Erma Bombeck was right: emotions don’t make a lot of noise.

Pride doesn’t show up in a showy car, laying on the horn, waiting for your ego to come running out the door and hop in the passenger seat.

Anger can be as silent as steam — and burn, baby, burn.

Love  . . . well love is as silent as the sigh of a baby falling asleep in your arms. Or as raucous as a home filled with laughter that rocks the walls.

What I’ve learned is: I have to pay attention. Pay attention. If I don’t, I miss the emotions, bad or good, that ambush me and spin me out of control. I miss the reasons I am crying — and the reasons I am smiling so big my face hurts.

In Your Words: How do emotions enter your life — quietly or with fanfare? And how would you describe an emotion’s sound — pride or love or anger or fear or exhaustion or joy? 

The Sound of Emotions: Are You Listening? #lifequotes #ErmaBombeck
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When #Emotions Ambush Us #lifequotes #ErmaBombeck
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**Jackie Layton is the winner of the copy of My One Word by Mike Ashcraft and Lisa Olsen from last Friday’s giveaway! Congratulations, Jackie! And I so appreciated everyone’s comments.**

I’m celebrating the release of my e-novella, A November Bride, with a Rafflecopter giveaway! Enter for a chance to win a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card and much more!! Go here to enter or click on the book cover image!

Enter @bethvogt's #Rafflecopter giveaway celebrating A November Bride! http://tinyurl.com/nzcba7j...
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In Others’ Words: One Word 2015

 

You may not be ready to think about the 2015 yet, but I’ve been thinking about the upcoming new year since August. Yes, yes, I have.

Those of you who’ve hung around this blog long enough know I don’t do resolutions — rather, I focus on one word for an entire year. Well, this year I realized what next year’s word was fairly early.

But, as I like to do each year, I’ll recap the past nine years of words before I share what my word will be for year ten. (Wow! A decade of words! I ought to celebrate somehow, don’t you think?)

2006: gratitude – I kept a gratitude journal and found my “glass-half-empty” attitude revolutionized.

2007: simplify – A severe illness turned this word into survival. I embraced simpler things in ways I never imagined.

2008: content – as in “be content with such things as you have” (Hebrews 13:5) I bought a lot less that year!

2009 & 2010: forgiveness – I had a lot to learn and unlearn about forgiveness.

2011: hope – A word I clung to when life hurt or when my heart ached for others who were hurting. There were times I could have asked “Why?” Instead, I asked myself, “Are you going to abandon hope?” My answer: No.

2012: trust – During a year of change, I faced doubting versus trusting — and chose to trust. I also began posting trust quotes on my Facebook page to encourage myself and others.

2013: confidence – I feel so much stronger emotionally after keeping my heart and mind set on “not throwing away my confidence.” (Hebrews 10:35-36) And yes, I continued the tradition of posting confidence quotes on my FB page.

2014: think – I tried to anchor my thinking to truth more and more, rather than letting my thoughts go wandering. (The tree image/quote is from my 2013 One Word blog post.)

The word for 2015 slipped up on me slowly, as I seemed to write nonstop, week after week. I found myself . . . well, coming to the end of myself in a lot of ways. And I stumbled onto the idea that I needed to be collaborating with God as I wrote.

Collaborate.

Isn’t that a beautiful word?

Collaborate means to work jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something. Synonyms: co-operate, join forces, team up, band together, work together, participate, combine, ally.

As always, I’ve wanted a verse to anchor my word to, and my treasured friend, author Cynthia Ruchti, shared the perfect one with me while we were at a writers retreat in Monterey:

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it (complete it) until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6 NASB)

I’m still looking for my visual to accompany me one word — but I know I’ll find it before the new year begins.

In Your Words: What about you? What was your word for 2014? If you already know your word for 2015, I’d love for you to share! And if you do resolutions instead, how have those worked out for you this year?

To celebrate a decade of focusing on one word a year, I’m giving away one copy of My One Word, by Mike Ashcraft and Lisa Olsen, a wonderful book that helps you “lose the long list of resolutions … and do something about one thing this year instead of nothing about everything.” Leave a comment below and share your word for 2014 or 2015!

The Power of One Word #oneword2015 #giveaway
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What's Your One Word for 2015? #oneword2015 #giveaway
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In Others’ Words: What’s So Funny?

Ah yes, laughter is often the best medicine.

But there is often truth hidden in our laughter.

The things we laugh at? Those very things reflect a bit of reality back at us: that life is full of comical things — like a silly pair of sunglasses on a tired-out pooch. Or a silly pair of sunglasses on tired ol’ me.

There is satire, so often used in politics, and slapstick, honed to perfection by the one and only Dick Van Dyke (What? You’ve never heard of Dick Van Dyke? Enjoy the brief YouTube clip at the end of this post.). There are puns, which I enjoy but can never quite pull off. And yes, we sometimes veil our insults with humor — sarcasm –, but I’ve learned that these tyes of verbal stabs aren’t so hidden.

Yes, sometimes we laugh instead of crying because really, laughter seems the better choice in public. We’ll cry in private, or in the safety of our closest friends. And I sometimes think that is best.

 

 

In Your Words: What truths have you found hidden in humorous things? On a lighter note, who’s your favorite comedian? 

Have you searched humor and found a hidden truth? #lifequotes
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What's so funny? Looking for what's hidden in humor #lifequotes
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You’re invited! One more day to  help me plan Bellamy’s wedding for my novella, Can’t Buy Me Love! The novella releases next May and I’m writing it this month. Visit this blog post for more details.