Passionate Pursuits

Goals The word hangs in the air, casting its long shadow across the falling grains of sand in Time's hourglass, a pall over our good intentions. To join in the New Year's emphasis on resolutions, I wrote this poetic treatise.

Goals: A Poem

Make 'em.

Break 'em.

Actually, I make goals every year. Sometimes I even keep them.

Sometimes I go beyond them.

Passionate Pursuits A couple of days ago, I found a list of 24 potential hobbies and interests from July 2005. A few I've already embraced or accomplished. Some no longer interest me.

Two intrigued me -- one of those aha kind of moments. So in 2010, I'm going to:

• learn how to operate that expensive camera we bought for our daughter's wedding two years ago;
• participate in Florida's State Forest Trailwalker Program.

Goals guide us.

Passionate pursuits propel us.

You've been thinking about goals. Now think about your passions. What are you pursuing this year?

Fanatics

My oldest and my youngest are shivering in the rain at the Gator Bowl. Bethany and Nathaniel are longtime Seminole fans so they're ecstatic to participate in college football history.

3:26 pm text message: Sun came out, not freezing anymore. All food places running out of food.

I indulge in my fanaticism tomorrow at the Seventh Annual Lord of the Rings Extended Version Movie Marathon with the bonus showing of The Hunt for Gollum. Here's a photo from last year's gathering the fellowship faithful.

The posters was a gift from my son-in-law. Somehow he talked a video store into letting him have them and then he passed them on to me.

A Christmas Legacy

"Do you think they'll read these?" my son-in-law asked as he helped me insert the plastic-protected pages between the covers of the two navy blue albums late Christmas Eve 2007.

"I know they will." I smiled, more to myself than at him. I knew in the deepest abyss of my heart that I was giving my daughters a treasured gift. The timing was perfect as both girls looked forward to life-changing joys: Bethany's pregnancy for her second child, Jill's after-Christmas wedding. They faced the future, but my gift transported them to the past.

On May 9, 1981, only days before my 24th birthday and a few months before my first pregnancy, I wrote on the first page of my first blank book. I've filled up enough blank books since then to fill a small plastic tote. Books I allowed no one to read.

Until that Christmas. I typed selected entries from each journal using a cursive font, scanned and inserted photos, and printed the entire document, twice, onto pale mauve paper.

Thanks to my intermittent journal-keeping, I gave my girls the gift of knowing me when I was a young wife and new mother. I shared childhood anecdotes about them and their younger brother. I entrusted them with joys and with sorrows.

And, yes, Bethany and Jill read their copies just as I knew they would. Laughing. Crying. Because of a Christmas gift begun before I knew them.

If you keep a journal, consider sharing the gift of your younger self with your loved ones. Or begin keeping a journal now. Your current words are a future treasure.

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.

The Lazy Trap

In an early draft of my latest novel, I wrote that my protagonist stole a truck and then continued on with the story.

Lazy, lazy, lazy!

I didn't want to figure out how she stole the truck and I very much wanted to get to the part where she helps the man of her dreams escape from a prisoner-of-war camp.

My critique group thought differently.

"Show it!" Karen demanded.

"No!!" Jeanie admonished.

The latest draft shows my protagonist finding the truck, considering the truck, stealing the truck.

Please tell me I'm not the only writer to fall into the lazy trap.

Need + Passion + Vision = Something Big!

See a need. Discover your passion. Pursue your vision.

When nine-year-old Austin Gutwein sees the heartbreaking need of African orphans, he discovers his passion for basketball can raise money for these children. Over the next few years, Austin pursues his vision to raise money to build a school and a clinic.

The young founder of Hoops of Hope writes about his experiences in Take Your Best Shot (co-written with Todd Hillard). In his book, Austin challenges other kids to discover their own passions to “do something bigger than yourself.”

Each chapter ends with questions to help the reader pursue his or her own vision.

Just think what great things can be accomplished just by following Austin’s example – no matter one’s age!

[Note: I received a copy of this book as a reviewer for Thomas Nelson, Inc.]

BLOG TOUR: Squeezing Good Out of Bad

Sour circumstances left you feeling down? Unemployment, foreclosures, divorce, bankruptcy and cancer don't even begin to peel the skin off all the bad news in our world today. At a time in history when the evening news contains more bad than good, people wonder if sweeter days will ever come. In steps James (Jim) Watkins. With a fresh perspective on life, love and the pursuit of happiness, Watkins serves readers a refreshing cup of encouragement and hope.

Written from his own experiences with cancer, unemployment and other life-puckering crises, Jim prompts readers to look at the cup of suffering with eyes focused on the true thirst quencher--Jesus Christ. Readers will be pleasantly surprised at the balance of readability and deep wisdom offered within the pages of Squeezing Good Out Of Bad. With scripture references, humor-filled lists, and a creative manuscript, Watkins brings the bitterness of hard times and blends it with the sweetness of God's presence. He's been there. His transparency is as refreshing as, you guessed it, a tall, cool glass of lemonade.

(NOTE: I received a complimentary copy of Squeezing Good Out Of Bad via Kathy Carlton Willis Communications, gifted to all participants in this blog tour.)

Blog Tour Interview:

1. You've been in the literary world for a while, give us a quick recap of how you got started to where you are today.
By second grade, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I felt the suspension of disbelief was stretched too thin when the real-live puppet Pinocchio became a real live boy. So I rewrote the ending having the wooden puppet die a painful, prolonged death of Dutch elm disease. (At that point, I'm sure my parents and teachers weren't sure if I'd become a writer or a life-long patient at a psychiatric hospital.) I later went on to become the editor of my high school paper, worked at a Christian publishing house as an editor during college, and then dabbled in writing while holding down a real job. Since 1988 I've been writing and speaking full-time.

2. In Squeezing Good Out Of Bad you give many insightful tips on how to turn around sour circumstances. Share a practical way we can be encouraged during tough times.
My "top ten list" of chapter titles 10-4 provide practical steps for dealing with lemons, but the real secrets are found in chapters 3-1. (Yes, like a true top ten list, the chapters are numbered backward.) Romans 8:28 promises that that God is working all things out for our good to accomplish His purpose in our lives. But we have to read on to verse 29 to find that purpose: "to be conformed to the image of His Son."

3. No life is perfect. Can you give us an example of how you got through a challenging situation and were able to use these principles to see the good in it?

I think it's so important that we take our faith seriously, but I certainly don't want to take my situation or myself too seriously. So I create a mental "top ten" list of what good can come about in this situation. For instance, last year I had radiation for cancer and it totally depleted me physically and mentally. My family dubbed it "radiation retardation." Because of that, I was fired from a wonderful part-time job because I just couldn't do it. So, "Top Ten Great Things about Losing My Job": 10. I'll be paying less taxes next year. 9. I've got twenty hours a week of free time. 8. . . .

Our family is going through something right now that is far worse than cancer, and I can't see a single good thing that can come out of it. So, at those times, you just keep hanging on--with white knuckles--to the fact that God loves you and the Romans 8:28 is still in effect.

4. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Spare time? What's that? I'm a firm believer in "redeeming the time" so I try to keep busy doing things that matter for the Kingdom. But after my little brain is worn out--usually around 7 pm--nothing beats a session of "Freecell."

5. What's the last book you read and why?

Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr. Unfortunately, the only real reading for pleasure is on airline flights. The King book is research for a book I'm proposing as we approach the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

6. What do you hope readers will gain by reading your book?

I wrote the first draft nine years ago, and even though I have a great agent, we just couldn't find a publisher. That was before cancer, family crisis, unemployment. . . . So it's a much more comforting, honest book. And it forced me to not be so flippant and casual about the serious issues people are dealing with. Henri Nouwen talks about "wounded healers." I think, because of the lemons that have piled up in my life, I can more compassionately offer comfort to those buried under a pile of lemons.