Eat, Drink and Enjoy Your Job, Eccl. 2:24

line art drawing of carpe diem. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,  for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment"( NIV Eccl 2:24-25)?

I straggled into work at Franklin Academy. "Lord, I hate this job," I repeated my morning mantra as I searched for my cup of java. I then counted my years until retirement. Too many to offer relief. I stopped in my tracks as words of my students reverberated.

"I can't wait to graduate. When I have a job..."
"I can't wait until college is done, then I..."
"I can't wait..."

Intoning "I can't wait" ruins more lives. We're always looking for the next big thing. But what happens when you get it? Another big thing rears it's head: driver's license, graduation, college, career, retirement. What comes then? Death and the judgment. No one's counting the days to death! (Even though we Christians claim we look forward to it).

So celebrate your "hedonism:"

• eat--be it a gourmet meal or pizza (I'm redundant), savor the flavor. Enjoy. Even tofu. It's a gift of God.
• drink--obviously not in excess, but a good coffee, a cold glass of milk, a fine wine,  a home brewed beer or water from an artesian well, enjoy the provision of God.
• work--it's a gift. Instead of moaning, think what benefit your actual work gives you. Celebrate it. Once you retire, you're on your way to dying...may even do that before retirement.

Carpe Diem --this phrase may have been made famous in Dead Poet's Society, but Ecclesiastes' Preacher beat N.H. Kleinbaum in popularizing the concept. How can you eat, drink and be merry?

How Grammar Literate Are You?

The punctuation mark comma (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Can you correctly answer the following? Check the Literator tab on the main page for the answers and your score.

1. The Oxford comma is on that is: a) used only in England  b) an optional comma strongly recommended before a conjunction c) joins two closely related sentences.

2. A comma splice a) is used when a period or semi-colon should be used: b) is half of a quotation mark c) is another name for the serial comma.

3.  Etc. or et cetera (and NEVER in formal prose, we ALL know that), is set off in commas: a) every time b) when it's not written out c) when it's the final word in a series.

4.Et al means: a) and others b) Please include Al c) I can't remember the other examples, so I'll abbreviate it.

5. Ampersand is: a) the overuse of the word and b) the symbol # c) the symbol &

Don't Worry About the Morrow

Matt 6:34

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes”( Matt 6:34, THE MESSAGE).

early morning mist

I goofed. I know, no small surprise. And you ask, “What did you do now, Carol?” And I answer.  

 Remember, you asked, so it’s your problem when I unwind a long tale of writing woes: a mistyped title in a query, a header that’s wrong, spelling comma as coma, forgetting my pitch, getting rejected because no one’s seen my genius.

Have I told you? I’m the next great Hemingway. Of the female persuasion. I know it, but I haven’t been able to convince anyone else.

Lately, I’ve been bemoaning the three new rejections I haven’t received yet. (Believe me,  they’re coming).

Maybe. 

Maybe not.

But Matthew 6: 34 tells me I’ve got to stop my merry-go-round worrying about tomorrow. I’ve got to see and hear and taste all the good God has done in my life today.

I've seen:

·         Starlight on a black lake

·         Mist dancing on water

·         The diamond glint of frost

·         Encouragement in a good friend's eyes

I've heard:

·         The whirr of partridge wings

·         The call of geese

·         The bark of a happy Springer spaniel chasing rabbits

·         The cry of a healthy newborn

I've tasted

·         Pumpkin-spice coffee

·         Farm-fresh eggs

·         Dark chocolate

·         The lips of a doting husband

To worry about tomorrow only destroys today. What blessing have you been given today?

Ecclesiastes 1:18--Knowledge=Sorrow

Much learning earns you much trouble. The more you know, the more you hurt. Eccl 1:18

This verse confused me. I love knowledge. I believed you can never have too much. But then, I discovered, the hard way, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. Then you find yourself refusing to get out of bed, refusing to remove the covers from off your head. And people get pretty sick of your moaning.

I know from experience.

 

Naively, I sat down a wrote a book. A wonderful book. One to be esteemed by all mankind. Well, as a humorous women’s fiction, a small fragment of womankind would love it. Crit partners read it, I reviewed it, my daughter loved it. Perfect. So I pitched it at the last writers’ conference.

I found myself with three requests for DWF, one requiring a title change, so I dutifully reviewed my manuscript and discovered, to my horror, that I learned much in the years since I created this masterpiece. The book stunk. After hiding in bed for twenty-four hours, spending the next day in tears, and consulting with others, I dusted off my grief, and re-worked it. Three weeks later, it was ready to be mailed.

I looked at old queries to serve as a cover letter. With good reason, no one wanted to take a chance on this before seeing a I couldn't write a decent query. Using knowledge newly acquired I crafted a letter no agent could refuse--one designed for each specific agent.

Except.

Remember that on title change? My mind no longer saw either of the titles. I perfected my queries, hit send and then realized…in one paragraph I called my work DWF. In another it became On(the)Line.

A year ago I would have shrugged. Said, “No big deal.” But my knowledge has increased, and thus my sorrow. A little mistake like I made, in our competitive field, was huge. And I grieve because another year has gone down the tubes.

Furthermore, I'm reading a book that truly is great. What I sent to the three agents does not compare.

While I grieve and worry my failure, I’m glad the only thing that truly matters is God and our continual striving to be like Him. We can study, stay up late, find the greatest mentors, and there will always be more that arises that shows us just how far short we all have fallen from the glory of God.

No Comparison: Lessons from Conference

"Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. 5 Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life" (Gal 6:4-5 (from THE MESSAGE))

Fearless Fiction Writers--No Comparison

At the ACFW conference--a Christian writers' conference , I had the opportunity to sit in my continuing ed session for a grand total of five minutes. Literally. During that time, Karen Ball said, "Do not compare yourself with anyone." That message changed my life.

Revolutionary quote? Maybe not.  But God spoke it to me in an indelible manner. She uttered a truth God proceeded to demonstrate throughout the conference. 

1.  The Genesis Winner. I sat in the cafe with a dear friend who'd been writing her whole life, and she had ten completed manuscripts that had so far netted no agent and no contract. This year she won Genesis--a contest for unpublished writers. Her time in the trenches will end. Soon.
2. The Contract Deal. During one dinner, our emcee, announced a call another writer received--her first two-book contract. She announced the name of the author, and my immediate thought was, "What does this woman have to do with the unpublished author?"  The answer was everything. She received the deal. After having  taught, mentored, served on the Board--after having networked and encouraged others, her day came.
3. The Falling Into Your Lap. My roommate announced to the world after her first conference she had been given a contract with a popular agent. A few months later, he actually offered her the contract she thought she had.  Her "oops" mistake turned prophetic. One conference--one manuscript (that semi-finaled in Genesis), and she got what she needed.

 God sets our lives on a course. Once we recognize it, we must walk it. Because it doesn't follow our plans, because others succeed when we fail, does not measure our failure. We need to be faithful to our calling (and this does not apply only to writers), and in due season we will reap the windfalls.

What are your (no ) comparison moments?


 
 
 

  
 

Life Is a Farmers' Market

Jeremy and his watermelons

I roamed our local farmers' market and discovered my friend April had wonderful blueberries. I bought a quart, ate them all week and came back for more. Then one day, April had no blueberries and only one stand carried any. They were a little overripe, a tad mushy. Obviously, the last of the season.

Then Jeremy brought in his watermelons--the best the North Country had to offer. None ever tasted so fresh, crisp and sweet. Until this last one. Obviously, the last of the season.

I'm now onto Honey Crisp apples. And as I watch one fruit or vegetable I love fade and another take its place, I can't help but think about Ecclesiastes 3:1. "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven(.)"

While we work our lives, sometimes the seasons are too dry or too wet or too short. Sometimes we produce much, other times we lie fallow. However, if we live our lives honoring God, we are like the fruit of the farmers' market. We'll grow and flourish in our season, and then lie fallow for a bit. Don't despair--the preacher of Ecclesiastes has also said we need to enjoy the fruit of our labor while we can.

The prophet of our ages said--what goes around comes around...I choose to believe, if I live righteously, I'll reap joy.

PS I LOVE the benefits of our farmers' market--but that's another blog

Let 'Er Rip: Don't Fear Looking Foolish

Like the soft winds that hint of a distant storm, the happy notes of an indistinct song wafted over me. I swung on my porch swing and smiled. Someone's happy. Then the strains intensified, and I knew. The Singer approached. Without seeing her, I pictured the young woman: MP3 player to her ear, playing music only she could hear. The singer belted out the lyrics in a manner that would have made Paula Abdul cringe, let alone Simon Cowell. The song intensified, and she wailed like a cow giving breach birth to co-joined calves.

You'd never catch me doing that. The more's the pity.

The world would be a better place if we just cut lose and enjoyed ourselves. Because I refuse to look the fool, I lost out on many things in life:

1. I refused to learn the guitar in high school because I felt silly carrying the huge instrument. It wasn't until my late thirties that I dared picked up the bassoon (talk about the aforementioned cow).
2. I never sing if I can be heard--and it certainly brings me down in church and other places. I used to love it, and singing is a cathartic activity. I have nothing on The Singer--except a loss of joy.
3. In my twenties, I refused to run because I thought I looked silly. Turns out I'm a fast runner. Today, I love it--but it took me twenty years to overcome my fear of looking foolish, and to discover the joys of a runner's high.

How have you allowed the fear of looking foolish hinder you.