Scalpel ...

So, if to write is to bleed and to spill your guts all over the page, I'm going to have to do a CSI on the topic that hurts the most: my still-single state at the starting-to-fall-apart age of 44.

I know that sounds entirely negative, which, of course, presents a problem. It indicates I am not satisfied. That I've failed God's command to be content, regardless of my circumstances (Philippians 4:11). As a good, Christian girl, I am expected to do exactly that.

So, how does someone who has longed for marriage and a family all her life--and now finds herself facing menopause still husband- and child-less--find contentment in her singleness?

Well, if I'm going to be honest, that's really not the question I want to ask. Because I think it's okay to be sad that I'm still single. I believe I need to grieve what I have lost to time. And I think to do otherwise would be nothing more than a feeble attempt to mask the pain.

It's time to grieve. How did Solomon put it?

"There is a time for every event under heaven-- ... A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance."
~Ecclesiastes 3:1b, 4

First, we give ourselves time to be sad.

Then we dance.

This might hurt a bit ...

Some sportswriter named Red Smith (1905-1982) once said: "Writing is easy. You just sit down at the typewriter, open up a vein and bleed it out drop by drop."

And he wrote about sports.

I'm just saying. . . .

On Writing

"You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by."

~~Letter from Mark Twain to Orion Clemens, 23 March 1878

Yes, I exist ...

Recently, while marveling over the wonderful world of writing with my pen-inspired soulmates at the Write-to-Publish Conference in Wheaton, IL, we were presented with the following question:

If an editor Googles your name and nothing shows up, do you exist?

Fortunately--or unfortunately, depending on your perspective--the first thing that pops up when you Google my name is an article I wrote five years ago (five years!) called "Virgin Pride." And though I think it's a good piece and I am, yes, proud of it, I have done other things since then. So, if you do search out my name, keep scrolling down. You'll find some interesting stuff ... including the fact that particular article has been translated into French. I just think that's cool.

Anyway, this is it: my first blog. Should be interesting to see what happens. . . .