Hoping To Take More Walks

    Over Thanksgiving,  I had an interesting discussion about the popularity of Amish novels with my mother-in-law.  I told her that a lot of my readers like to read Amish-themed books because their lifestyles are often the opposite of their busy daily lives. The Amish don’t use electricity or drive cars. Most don’t have cell phones or use the computer on a regular basis. Because of those things-plus many other guidelines, their lives are much simpler, and their pace of life is slower.

                I don’t know about you, but there are some days that I would really enjoy becoming disconnected from all the noise and frantic running around.

                I’m never more aware of these differences than when I am writing my Amish Christmas novellas.  That’s when I’m constantly reminded about the real reason for the season, and I find myself wanting to celebrate time with family, enjoy a leisurely hour chatting with a friend, or baking cookies for a neighbor.

                In A Christmas for Katie, my main character is little Katie Weaver, a somewhat headstrong six year old.  In this story, Katie isn’t begging for the latest must-have present. Instead, what she wants is to have a better nativity scene in the front of the library. The current one there is peeling and broken down and she is sure that it’s not good enough to celebrate Christ’s birth. Her goal isn’t met with a lot of enthusiasm. The librarian is occupied with other problems, someone keeps stealing the nativity pieces, and even her mother has to gently remind her that the Amish don’t really believe in nativity sets. 

          I loved writing this little book. While writing it, I found myself wondering how I could make sure that I wasn’t only thinking about to-do lists, work, and  shopping  this holiday season.   

One of the things my husband and I decided to do was take Butch, our new little adopted dachshund, for a long walk every day. Just yesterday, we were on our town’s bike trail, bundled up in mittens and coats (Butch, too!) we found ourselves looking for bright red cardinals, laughing about things that happened with our kids over Thanksgiving break, and chatting about nothing important.

                When we got back home, Butch was tired, our cheeks were red,  and  our spirits were lifted. We were already looking forward to our next walk! 

                I hope each of you has a wonderful holiday season. And, if you don’t already do something to slow down your life a bit, I hope you’ll give it a try. You might just be glad that you did.

Butch ready for his walk!