IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?

To anyone who has checked in periodically, hoping to see something akin to words of wisdom here, I apologize for the black hole. It isn’t that I haven’t been writing or editing or tutoring. It IS that I have been writing, editing, tutoring, AND promoting/supporting our fundraising events and products for the Stephen Lewis Foundation to work as a partner with the grandmothers in Africa who are raising grandchildren orphaned by AIDS/HIV. As a result of my husband’s March heart attack and my own high cholesterol level, I’ve also been learning how to make tasty meals that are low in salt and cholesterol. We’ve been managing to do without, or reduce the amounts of some of our favourite foods. Did you know you can use a vegetable peeler to produce a limited number of five-year-old cheddar cheese curls to give the illusion of still eating the huge chunks on which we used to snack? I’m becoming a very creative salad maker and we’re eating a greater variety of fish than we have for years. Tried making a simple coconut and shrimp dish for the first time and all who ate it gave it a thumbs up. Simple is important because when I edit or write for a day, I’m somewhat of a dishrag, no, make that I AM a dishrag, when it comes time to make a meal. That is the danger time! Easy usually means high calories or high salt. Our efforts seem to be paying off. Robert has just been told to half a blood pressure medication dosage, even with a fairly high intake of dark chocolate!! And, that habit is contagious. I hear the rustle, rustle of the paper, the snap of the bar being broken into small pieces, and even though my back is to him as I read in bed, I begin to salivate for chocolate. “Yes,” I say, before I’m asked, and I succumb, once more, to chocolate. EDITING Since I last made an entry here, I’ve been editing several manuscripts, one of which won Word Alive Publisher’s 2014 prize for best non-fiction manuscript, which means that talented author, Bobbi Junior, is having her book edited, published, promoted and distributed by a well-known Christian publisher. What a great prize! Another two articles which I edited for columnist and anthology contributor, Glenda Dekeema-De Vries, won two awards from The Word Guild’s Annual Competitions. Now, if I keep rubbing editing shoulders with these women, and others of their ilk, and actually get my own manuscripts in where they belong, perhaps, I, too, will be a star! Probably, of the four manuscripts which are poised on the verge, the one which would be of the most value in the Christian world is the one for about-to-be-married couples and the clergy who counsel them. It is a matter of getting it to the right place at the right time, and at my age, I’d better get a move on! My life is a prayerful balancing act, as is the case for many people. WRITING: Some publications of my own while you and I haven’t been in touch include: 1) >Meditations for The Word in Season, Augsburg Fortress Press, July, August, September 2014 issue. July 30th to August 6th inclusive. (One of my FAVOURITE things to research and write! Preparing devotions and worship services always takes me through times of worship myself, enriching the product and enriching my life.) 2) The Worship Service in the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Society’s Glad Tidings anniversary issue. For the 75th anniversary, in addition to writing the Go and Tell worship service, I had designed the logo for a competition. The concept came to me after a nap at Vancouver School of Theology while we were there for my husband’s study leave. It won and was refined by a professional artist to reach the hearts of many, being duplicated in pins, on tote bags and on banners. Penhold Presbyterian Church, one of two Alberta points where Robert was serving at the time, gave me great joy by surprising me with just such a hand-worked banner at the front of their church. 3) Several columns >(some of which are on line) as part of my year’s responsibility as a member of what is called the Pembroke Observer’s Community Editorial Board. So far, they’ve dealt with the importance of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a unique family-friendly theatre at Garrison (used to be CFB) Petawawa, Troyes Cinema, where the owner does a handstand before each showing, the trials of mammograms, and, last Saturday, abuse of women. 4) For the last two referenced, I did the accompanying art work, in the first case, a clay composition with other materials incorporated and, in the second case, a collage of photos with ink slashed across it to demonstrate life damage. 5) A couple of manuscripts have been submitted to anthologies and are expected to be printed, two of which have to do with experiences of God, one by the author (just notified that it is accepted and contract to follow) and one by a child. 6) Prepared my presentation manuscript,+ related illustrations, as well as my bio for the brochure for A Day Apart for Canadian Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec, in February 2014. I have the honour of being key note speaker. (I got to play with bubbles while getting my photograph taken for the brochure!) So, now you have it, a rough idea of why I have been so negligent about keeping my blog up to date. I apologize. I should probably put a note up on my face-book page when I make an entry here so that I am not mentally and emotionally banished to outer darkness by those who are kind enough to check in here.