Marilyn Turk's Blog, page 4
August 7, 2021
Today is National Lighthouse Day!
Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. Photo by Chuck Turk
August 7, 2021
Last year most lighthouses were closed like many other public venues due to the Covid scare.
But this year, lighthouses have re-opened, giving us a chance to observe these icons of history in person.
If last year has taught us anything, it’s that we should take advantage of opportunities we have while we can. The people (mostly volunteers) and entities that maintain these lighthouses do so out of love for them, and the upkeep of these lighthouses relies on donations and visitor tours.
How many lighthouses are in your state? Have you seen or climbed them all? Do you have a favorite? Even though I’ve visited over 100 lighthouses myself, I hate to admit I still haven’t seen all the lighthouses in my own state, but I’m working on it, having visited the Key West Lighthouse a few months ago. In celebration of lighthouses, today I’m posting pictures of some of the lighthouses I’ve visited. I’d love to hear which ones you have.
Au Sable Lighthouse, MI, photo by Chuck Turk
Boston Light with Fog Bell, photo by Logan Lyttle
Montauk Lighthouse, photo by Chuck Turk
New Canal Lighthouse, Flickr, Creative Commons
Key West Lighthouse, photo by Chuck Turk 2020
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
North Point Lighthouse, WI, photo by Rosemary O’Connor
Point Betsie Lighthouse, MI, photo by Chuck Turk
Beavertail Lighthouse, RI, photo by Chuck Turk
Sand Hills Lighthouse, photo by Chuck Turk
Little River Light, lantern room, photo by Chuck Turk
Crisp Point Lighthouse, MI, Photo by Chuck Turk
Currituck Lighthouse, photo by Chuck Turk
July 29, 2021
Do Writers Read?
Of course, they do! In fact, reading is one of the requirements for the job.
So today, I’m taking a reader survey, since I’m also a reader and I’m interested in what reading habits you have.
Do you have a favorite place to read? (Inside, Outside, favorite chair, bed?)
Do you have a favorite time to read? Morning, afternoon, night?Do you like to have music playing in the background? If so, what kind?Do you snack while you read? What’s your favorite reading snack?Coffee or tea?Do you use bookmarks?Do you read more than one book at a time?What’s your favorite genre? Romance, mystery, contemporary, historical, etc.?How do authors irritate you?Do you belong to a book club? If so, do you use discussion questions from the book?What do you wish authors would do more of?Print, ebook or audiobook?
My own favorite place and time for a print book is at bedtime or at the beach. However, I enjoy listening to audio book when I walk or ride in a car. I prefer instrumental music in the background, and I try not to snack, but sometimes grab some chocolate or a handful of pecans.
My favorite genre to read is historical fiction, mainly World War 2. I do use bookmarks for print, for my research books too. And I often have more than one book going at a time. For instance, I’m listening to The Hiding Place on audio, reading On a Coastal Breeze by Suzanne Woods Fisher in print, and also reading a nonfiction book for research called Last Train to Paradise. Of course, I read devotions in the morning with my coffee.
So what about you? Tell me about your reading preferences. If you answer and like bookmarks, I’ll send you one of my new ones!
July 19, 2021
A Lighthouse Perfectly United
Les Hanois Lighthouse—built by Trinity House in 1862—marks the shoals and reefs off the coast of Guernsey.
Situated at the western end of the Channel Islands, the white granite lighthouse rises from a reef on the southwest side of the Island of Guernsey. Les Hanois Lighthouse is important in the development of lighthouse engineering because it was the first to be built with all the stones dovetailed together both laterally and vertically, thereby making the construction one solid mass. The cement mortar in the joints formed between stone faces lock the dovetails so that the stones cannot be separated without being broken. This method became the pattern adopted for subsequent lighthouses built on sea rocks.
Previously, various methods of connecting the stones in rock towers had been used at other lighthouses. John Smeaton developed the use of granite blocks for rock towers, connected together with metal pins and marble dowels. Alan Stevenson used a similar method in the construction of the Skerryvore Lighthouse, while his father, Robert Stevenson, arranged stones of each layer in the Bell Rock, forming a series of dovetails which were then pinned together. It was William Douglass, the 28-year-old son of engineer Nicholas Douglass, who suggested the unique dovetailing method.
A helideck was constructed above the lantern in 1979. Automation began at the Les Hanois Lighthouse in July 1995 and the station was demanned in January 1996. The station was converted to solar power with panels mounted around the lower part of the helideck support. The lighthouse is now monitored and controlled from Trinity House’s Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex, UK.
When I read about the way the Les Hanois Lighthouse was constructed in such a way that the individual stones united in one solid mass, I couldn’t help but relate the principle to people, and how much stronger we are when we’re united.
Many references to the importance of being together and working together can be found in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. After a year of Covid isolation, I believe most people are appreciating the opportunity to get together with others more than ever. And what is the ‘mortar’ that binds us together? Love. Love for our fellow man gives us unity as well as peace and make us stronger together.
And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12
Trinity House Field Operations Technicians at Les Hanois, photo courtesy Trinity House, taken by technician Scott Tacchi.
July 17, 2021
Changes and Growth
Me on the gallery at Au Sable Lighthouse, MI
Hi Friends,
It’s hard to believe I started this website eleven years ago, but in those years there have been changes to the site, thanks to my awesome web designer, Rick Loe.
In addition to the changes in appearance, there have been notable changes in content. With over 300 blog post, I had to slow down to write books! In fact, I’ve had 17 published since I first began writing about the same time I started the website. Consequently, we’ve had to do some updating to the My Books tab.
Also, I noticed my last News update was about the 2020 Blue Lake Christian Retreat. Unfortunately, like many events, that one was cancelled as well. I am not sure when or if, after three consecutive, wonderful years, the retreat will be held again. Much depends on the venue, Blue Lake Camp, being open and available. They, too, are trying to recuperate from a year being closed. There are other venue possibilities, but Blue Lake was the most reasonably priced and adequate for our needs, so that is the preferred site.
After taking some time away from writing blog posts as often as originally (once a week every week) to write books, I will try to post more often. Since the lighthouse blog posts require more research, they are more time consuming, but I enjoy finding interesting stories to share. I hope you’ll continue to read the blog as I post new stories.
Please keep in touch, as I love communicating with you who are on the other side of the screen!
God Bless,
Marilyn
Me on the gallery at Little River Lighthouse, Maine
July 16, 2021
Old But Still Serving a Purpose
Today, I have a milestone birthday. I’ll spare you which one, but I’m still trying to accept my age. Birthdays are so looked forward to when we’re children, but as we get older, they’re not quite as exciting. Getting older is often associated with getting weaker, slower, forgetful, and losing one’s usefulness to society.
Unfortunately, some of our American lighthouses aren’t as useful anymore either. But in many parts of the world, lighthouses still provide a much-needed service to mariners.
One of those lighthouses is Ireland’s Hook Lighthouse, or Hook Head Lighthouse, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in the world. Situated on Hook Head at the tip of the Hook Peninsula, the black-banded lighthouse is in the southwestern part of County Wexford, on the southeast coast of Ireland.
The existing tower dates from the 12th century, though tradition states that Dubhán, a missionary to the Wexford area, established a form of beacon as early as the fifth century. The first custodians of the light were a small group of monks whose small monastery was situated on the peninsula. The monks who lived at this monastery lit warning fires and beacons all through the years to warn sailors of the dangerous rocks on the peninsula. Monks helped build the limestone lighthouse tower around the year 1200, and they served as the managed the light until they were replaced by the first lighthouse keepers in the mid-17th century.
The light was automated in 1996 and the last light keepers were removed. The old keepers’ houses were turned into a visitor center and the light station was opened to the public in 2001. The lighthouse is now remotely controlled from by the Commissioners of Irish Lights.
Thankfully, I’m not too old to go see it and climb the 115 steps to the top, and I hope to do that someday. Hook Head Lighthouse is about 800 years old, which makes me really young by comparison!
They will still bear fruit in old age. Psalm 92:14a
July 14, 2021
Are You Standing in Garbage?
“There I was, standing in a field of garbage,” the visiting missionary said. He was sharing a story about his search for a place to have an off-campus residence for some students in Africa whose college did not provide housing. The missionary and his wife wanted to fill a need for female students to have a safe place to live.
But the mission’s budget was small, and the possibility of providing such a place seemed unlikely.
He had gone to a vacant lot to see if there was any way they could build what was needed. But the lot was filled with trash, and that’s all he could see as their vision seemed farther away. But he heard a voice in his head that said, “Look up.” In his rational mind, he felt God was telling him to pray, to look toward Him. But he’d already prayed for hours about the situation. Still, he heard the voice again say, “Look up.”
This time, he did, and noticed an abandoned building on the lot next to the one where he stood. Was this what God wanted him to look at? He left the garbage lot and focused on the building. As it turned out, they were able to get the building and its property for a very low price plus be able to afford the renovations. Now they can house fourteen young women attending college and hope to be able to expand.
As he told the story, I thought about how many times I’ve focused on “garbage.” Not literal garbage, but the garbage that inhibits me from achieving my goals. Another word for that garbage is “stinkin’ thinkin’.” Whenever I focus on negative thoughts, I am unable to accomplish anything. Our enemy, God’s enemy, whispers these negative thoughts to us when we’re vulnerable. For a writer, it’s when our proposal has been rejected, our sales have been low, our book didn’t win an award it was entered in, or we got a bad review.
Our negative thoughts are compounded when we look at the success of other writers and compare ourselves to them. Another big no-no which, by the way, violates number ten of the Ten Commandments which says not to covet anything someone else has. I must confess to violating this rule, which leads to dissatisfaction with ourselves and what we’ve accomplished and makes us want to quit trying.
But the biggest problem is PRIDE. Really? How can focusing on garbage be prideful? Because we’re focusing on ourselves and what we can or cannot do, and not on God and what He can do through us.
Instead, we need to get rid of the garbage-thinking and remember, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
So, it’s not all about me? Nope. Never was. It’s time to dump the garbage where it belongs, back where it came from, and cleanse our minds with God’s air (mind) refreshener in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Have you ever focused on garbage?
April 14, 2021
When is a writer a success or a failure?
Success and failure. In today’s world, we are often defined as one or the other in whatever we do. Success can lift our spirits, motivate, and energize us, but failure can demoralize, depress, or stifle further efforts.
So what determines whether a writer is successful or not? The answer depends on your point of view, that term so prevalent in the writing world.
Success:
To publishers and agents, success in their eyes is based on sales. Did a book meet their expectations for sales or not? If not, they may not offer the writer another contract.
To a writer seeking publication or an agent, success is getting a contract.
To some writers, gaining a contract with a specific publisher means success.
To a writer whose book is entered in a writing contest and wins, they consider themselves (or their book) to be a success.
To a writer working on a piece of writing, whether a book, an article, or a blog post, finishing it is success.
To a newbie going to their first writers conference, success is getting an appointment with a faculty member.
To a reader, a successful author is one who is published, especially one who has written a book they liked. A writer who has published many books is very successful.
Failure:
To an unpublished writer, failure is not getting a contract and not being published.
To a writer who’s received a negative review, they’re a failure.
To a writer whose work has never won a contest, they’re a failure.
To a writer who has written one book, but can’t get started on a second, they’re a failure.
To a writer whose books haven’t hit the Amazon top 100, they’re a failure.
To a writer who’s published with a small publisher but not one of the big five, they’re a failure.
A change of perspective can change a person from a failure to a success.
So how does a writer change their perspective from feeling like a failure to feeling like a success?
Be thankful for the gift, opportunity, and freedom to write.Be thankful if you are contracted or published.Congratulate yourself for meeting goals, small or large, a sentence or a paragraph, a page or more.Enjoy the process, without worrying about whether the book will have great sales or not.Know that where you are in your writing journey is where God wants you to be. This is your journey, not someone else’s. God has given you your own style.Do not consider others better than yourself because it appears they have achieved more. Read #5.Some well-known people had some worthwhile statements to consider about success or failure. Here are a few:
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford
“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” – C.S. Lewis
“Failure is a detour; not a dead-end street.” -Zig Ziglar
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again. That is why I succeed.” -Michael Jordan
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
To coin a phrase from Theodore Roosevelt, true failure is never trying.
What about you? Do you consider yourself a failure or a success when it comes to writing?
May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. Psalm 20:4
March 18, 2021
Oops. Sorry for the multiple sends!
Hey folks,
I hope you aren’t upset with me for getting multiple posts today. I didn’t think it went out the first time, so tried and tried again.
But obviously, I was wrong and it did go out the first time, so please accept my apologies for sending it to you more than once.
Marilyn
Iced Over at Spectacle Reef
Spectacle Reef, photo courtesy lighthousefriends.com.
Located in Lake Huron, Spectacle Reef is subject to the conditions of the Great Lake. From December through March, the lake is covered with ice. The lighthouse keepers played roulette trying to guess when it was time to go back to the mainland, since shipping stopped during that time on the lake. When winters came early and with brutal temperatures, keepers could find themselves stranded with no way out.
Such was the case in December 1927, when the three keepers were trapped inside the lighthouse for four days. Thick ice covered the lighthouse, blocking the tower’s doors. On December 14, 1927, the crew of the Poe lightship arrived to rescue them. The keepers’ only way out was by crawling through a two-foot window high in the tower, from which they were lowered to the ship by a rope.
Keepers arriving to open lighthouse, 1902, photo courtesy National Archives
In late March 1972, the keepers were taken to the lighthouse for reopen it for the season by the Coast Guard cutter Sundew. The cutter was forced to ram through the ice surrounding the lighthouse before they could reach the structure. Once they reached the lighthouse, the ship sent some of its crew on the crew to chop thought about five feet of ice before they could reach the door. Once inside, the keepers slept in sleeping bags the first week until the furnace finally raised the inside temperature to sixty-five degrees. It wasn’t until the first of July first that the last piece of ice finally melted off the northwest side of the pier.
In May 2014, the lighthouse was deemed excess by the Coast Guard and has since suffered neglect until it was sold at auction. The property is now managed by the Spectacle Reef Preservation Society, who plan to restore the lighthouse to its former glory. According to their website, https://spectaclereef.org.
Spectacle Reef now, without ice, waiting for rebirth, photo courtesy lighthousefriends.com
“The goal of the Society is to restore Spectacle Reef and open it to the public as a “Learning Light” and museum where people can discover not only the history of this unique structure but also the service and sacrifice of those who manned it to keep others safe. The restoration will be a multi-year project with the plan of being operational in time to celebrate Spectacle Reef’s 150th anniversary in 2024.”
Part of the Society’s goals is to “Establish full time keeper programs on site during the operating season to educate visitors and continue restoration and maintenance projects.”
If you would like to help them accomplish their worthy, ambitious goals, your contributions are welcome, as well as any hands-on work you can do. They promise you will not be ice-bound in the process.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: … a time to tear down and a time to build.” Ecclesiastes 3:1,3b
March 11, 2021
How to Find Joy in Writing Even When It’s Not Fun
Call me a rebel. Or a hypocrite. Or even a fake.
But the truth is, I don’t always love writing. What, you say?
Aren’t writers supposed to love writing? Now I know some do, but I doubt even those who do love it don’t love it all the time. Some authors even say they can’t not write. However, that feeling is not universal among writers.
Why not? I mean, look at all the perks. You get to sit home in your pj’s if you want. You don’t punch a clock because you can write whenever you want. And then your book is published and you’re famous and rich. Right?
Wrong. Let’s look at why writing might not be fun:
You ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” Why indeed? So, let’s look at what makes it fun:
But the biggest joy for a Christian author is knowing you’re doing what God wants you to do—write.
“We write this to make our joy complete.” ! John 1:4
So what about you? Does writing make you joyless or joyful? Why?
