Category: dogs

The sea is calling…

This writer sails onward toward distant horizons…

I want to tell you so much about this amazing journey, but that might spoil it for everyone, and I want this story to be perfect! When you pick it up and read it, my hope is that it comes alive for you, as it has for me in writing it.

More than anything, I desire for you to laugh when I laughed, and cry when I cried. I want you to feel the blood rushing through your veins, just like mine, in the moments of intensity. Hopefully, the world in which I write about, should come to life when you open the books cover. Above all else, there should be love binding the whole thing together, with its threads holding each page in place firmly.

Though I may not know what is to come, I know my God! He has given me a strong mind, wild imagination, and the passion and stubbornness to see this thing done!

When I say that I’m just getting started, as a writer, I mean it! Seriously, this book is just the beginning of a great adventure, unlike I’ve ever been on before in all my days!

While I would never feel worthy to challenge author’s such as Rawlings, Tolkien, Lewis, or even Salvatore… I would offer each of them a cookie!

Note to self… never ride a three wheeler in the mud, wearing shorts and sneakers… and with a friend who squeeze’s the throttle when she panics!

All I remember, was gunning it across the field… sliding… hitting a mud bank and vaulting full speed over it… lifting free of the seat and floating in the air for an instant… and then landing back down on the seat behind my friend.

In the chaos that followed, my friend accidentally hit the throttle, gassing it and throwing us forward, causing my foot to come free from the floorboard. When my foot came back down, the big knobby tire grabbed hold of it and pulled me off the bike… where my friend promptly ran me over.

One might say that this was my first crush!

Just saying,

Here, have a cookie…

Eustace always buys coffee for everyone when he carpools to work!

It’s off to writing I go…

I feel very unusual today, if I’m being completely honest. It was only yesterday that I wrote my thoughts on the beauty of flowers, and how fitting it seemed to offer them as comfort, when someone experiences the loss of a loved one. What I didn’t realize was that the flowers I enjoyed smelling and capturing pictures of recently, seemed to have been meant for myself.

My daughter texted me yesterday, sending Father’s Day greetings for my hubby. In passing, she mentioned the death of my foster mother, assuming that I’d already been aware. I was not!

Our relationship was tenuous at best ever since my divorce, nearly 20 years ago, and we hadn’t spoken for nearly 10 years. Setting aside my feelings of hurt, anger and confusion, over the things done and said to me, by the family as a whole, my heart still aches!

Whatever hurt or wrong done, she was really the only woman I considered my mother, in that sense. She was the only one who reached for me in the darkness, when I was so very lost. She fought for me, supported me and believed in me when no one else did.

Familial emotions are foreign to me, as my own birth mother was never drawn to care for her own children, being so lost in her own memories and hurts. Though I’ve learned to love her for the sake of healing and walking on, I never cried like this when she died. Honestly, I think I simply felt sorry for her empty life, more than anything else.

I lived with my foster mother, father and three brothers from the time I was 15 until I graduated from high school and moved out on my own. She was loved deeply by my daughters, as well as all the rest of the grandchildren in her life.

What I wish to remember of her is how much she loved God. Stella Guenther was the woman who did the softening in my heart, tilling the dry soil of my soul, allowing God to do the rest.

Rest well mom… I’ll see you on the other side!

Sometimes a picture can be so much more beautiful than the words seeking to describe it!

I do love the blooms, of late, that color my daily river walks. Their resilience and beauty offer a great amount of encouragement to me, during a rather difficult time. I suppose this is why folks often send flowers to people when they become ill or lose a loved one. Flowers just provide gentle comfort, somehow.

Without divulging more personal information than is necessary, I’ll simply say that I’ve had to switch into survival mode, of late. Don’t let that worry you, as we’ve been doing this long enough that I’ve become rather good at it!

If I can give any advice to one that is in the heart of the maelstrom, it would be to stay in the Bible, and don’t stop reading the words, even when you don’t feel like it does any good. Trust me when I say that it does! Reading scripture and staying in constant prayer have been my sustenance!

I know you may have noticed my lack of content lately, and I’m grateful that you’ve remained close by, regardless. If you are wondering if my writing has dropped off or fallen away, take heart my friends, it is going strong. Point in fact, it is going forward at full speed!

I discovered that if I divert all my attentions toward this novel, it allows me to not look at that which is all around me at the moment, all that is out of my control. If I fully trust God, taking him at his word, there is nothing to fear except fear itself! With that in my mind, I’m able to let faith answer the door each time fear comes knocking!

So, with all this extra fearless time available, I put it toward finishing what I started, a story that has come to life within my dreams. It grows more colorful and vibrant, with each chapter added. I found a station of music on Pandora Radio, of spa music that relaxes my brain, allowing me to get into character a great deal easier than I thought it would. I’ve just completed a massive portion of pivotal storyline that will now allow me to bring the story home to completion. Then I will go back and add in all the side conversations, give more in depth backgrounds, and link them all together for the books fullness.

I’ve been hiding behind excuses for not finishing this story, not bringing it home! I spent far too long waiting for the perfect environment needed for deep writing; quiet, calm and with no interruptions. Isolated in a beachside cottage would have been lovely, with leisurely walks along the sand. I’m sure you’ve heard me mention this before now.

Then it occurred to me, perhaps the beauty and passion that are found within the story, arises from the heat I’m experiencing in the furnace of my existence! Only God knows that part, for sure!

What I have come to know, to understand and hold onto, is that I care more about pleasing God with this story, than I do about it ever reaching the store shelf! It says in scripture that God has given me everything I will ever need to get through this world. Whatever is asked of me, He will empower me to get it done!

In no way am I saying that this novel is a tool for God’s purposes, as I’m not privy to that sort of information. Things that occur along my journey, blocking or slowing my progress forward, are not always about ME! What I do while I wait for God’s call of obedience, in any part of his purposes, is just as important as the actual SERVING part of my existence. I consider this part of my waiting as a time to focus on what is good, honorable, hopeful and what edifies others.

This book that I write may seem like just a story, but it is the best fruit that I, on my own, can offer!

I am Wiwohka, I am like roaring, raging, or rushing water! I do not simply ride upon the storm, rather, I am the storm… I AM the Maelstrom!