Mother’s Day 2012

Happy Mother’s Day!

May each reader enjoy a special day:

• If you’re a mother, may you be honored and pampered by your children.
• If you have a mother, may you enjoy special time honoring and pampering her.
• If your mother is no longer with you, may you recall special memories of your times together.
• If you know a mother without a family, may you stand in the stead of children for her and make her day meaningful.
• If you are estranged from your family, may this be the day you forgive each other and start a new loving relationship.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ~ Exodus 20:12 (ESV)

ALMIGHTY God, we give you thanks for mothers who love and care for us and entrust our mothers who are so dear to us to thy never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come; knowing that thou art doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

photo credit: aesop

National Library Week 2012

April 8-14, 2012 is National Library Week, with the theme “You belong @ your library.” If you haven’t been to your local library lately, you might be surprised to see everything available there.

The special week is sponsored by the American Library Association and celebrated by libraries across the US. Public libraries offer a variety of events, such as the displays, stories, trivia challenge, and other activities planned by the San Antonio Public Library.

According to the Campaign for America’s Libraries:

National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use.

Do you visit the library regularly? Do you plan to participate in any special events for National Library Week?

Reading Across America in Memory of Dr. Seuss

Today is the 15th observance of the National Education Association’s Read Across America.The purpose of the event is to encourage and motivate children and teens to read.

Read Across America happens on March 2nd because that is Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Imagine how many kids have developed a passion for reading from Dr. Seuss!

Schools, libraries, and community centers around the country are offering special events today. But you don’t have to attend a formal event to participate. If you have children or grandchildren, spend some time reading with them today. Share with neighborhood kids how reading impacted your life when you were their age. Or pay a visit to Seusville and pretend you’re a kid again, falling in love with Dr. Seuss’s stories for the first time.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2012

Valentine’s Day is all about love. We tend to focus on romantic love, but we can share all kinds of love with all kinds of people today.

Show your family how much you love them by spending time together doing something fun. Brighten your coworkers’ day with a note or a treat. Make Valentine’s Day special for an elderly neighbor or residents in a nearby nursing home by simply listening to their stories of days gone by. Spend time with your children looking at the valentines they got at their school party. Maybe even show a little love by smiling and sharing a few kind words with the most unlovable person you know. And, of course, share loving moments with your spouse or romantic partner.

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NASB)

ALMIGHTY God, we entrust all who are dear to us to thy never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come; knowing that thou art doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; help us to show them how much we love them, especially on this day of love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ~ adapted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer

photo credit: LadyDragonflyCC – TY for 300,000 Views!!!!

My 7 Links

Thanks to Christopher at Technology Bloggers for nominating me to participate in the My 7 Links Challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to create a bank of posts from the past that deserve to be seen again.

Several years ago, challenges (or “memes”) were quite popular in the blogosphere. However, their popularity has declined, and this is the first one I’ve been invited to participate in for a long time. I like this one because it gave me a chance to look back through my archives and select a few posts from the past to bring to the attention of my newer readers. Selecting only seven posts out of 1132 posts over the past five and a half years proved to be a real challenge, and in some cases I couldn’t narrow it down to one. Here are my choices.

My Most Beautiful Post

Happy 44th Anniversary to Us is a loving tribute to a beautiful marriage and my special husband.

My Most Popular Post

Thanks to the power of StumbleUpon, Creating Fictional Characters—Part 4: Fleshing Out Characters with Tags, Traits, and Relationships has had more than 147,000 views, about ten times as many as any other post. Strangely, this is part of a series, and while some of the other posts in the series are among my top ten popular posts, none has anywhere near this many views.

My Most Controversial Post

I don’t generally write controversial posts, but one post generated such a lively discussion that I wrote a second post about it, which generated even more opinionated conversation. The first post, A Chuckle from Spam, generated 67 comments (including my responses), and the follow-on post, There’s Always a Choice, generated 70 comments.

My Most Helpful Post

I wrote Tips and Tricks: How to Write, Send, Reply, and Forward E-mail for two writing challenges: Tips and Tricks and How-To. When I wrote it, I considered the advice so basic that the post might not be appropriate for the challenges. However, as basic as the advice is, a lot of people apparently need it. The post has generated nearly 4500 views and 125 comments.

A Post Whose Success Surprised Me

There’s absolutely no explanation for the fact that the fifth most popular post on my blog is two sentences wishing my readers Happy Valentine’s Day. I’m not only surprised; I’m totally perplexed.

Until StumbleUpon moved another post into first place, How Much Will It Cost? Average Freelance Editing Rates was  my popular post. It’s now #2 in my popular posts, and the post is #2 in Google for the search terms “freelance editing rates.” What is so surprising about this is that the post refers to a chart of average rates on the website of the Editorial Freelancers Association, but my posts ranks higher in Google and has generated a lot of traffic.

A Post That Didn’t Get the Attention I Feel It Deserved

One time when I was feeling discouraged that I wasn’t doing great things, I had an epiphany and wrote Catalyst: God’s Tool. I suspect many other people can benefit from my epiphany because most of us often fail to recognize what we are accomplishing.

A related post, You May Never Know the Impact You Have, also didn’t get much attention.  Both of these posts were written in my first year of blogging, when I had very few readers.

The Post I’m Most Proud Of

Choosing one post I’m most proud of is impossible, so I’ll select one that is close to my heart. A Different … and Special … Family Vacation won the Family Vacation Writing Project at Babylune, but the reason it means so much to me is that it describes a favorite family vacation—the last with my father before Alzheimer’s disease stole his ability to enjoy vacations and remember the people he loved. 

The second part of the challenge is to nominate up to five other bloggers to share their 7 links.

• David Bowles, Westward Sagas, a client, friend, historical author, and blogger who knows all kinds of Americana trivia
• Dominique, 4Walls and a View, inspiring blogger who writes about the challenges of living with chronic disease
• Dawn, Dawn Colclasure’s Blog, prolific author of adult nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature
• Laura Spencer, Writing Thoughts, a freelance writer and blogger who has some great posts in her archives

I’m going to stop at four nominations, so if you would like a nomination, leave a comment.

I know the people I nominated, if they choose to participate, will provide links to some outstanding posts in their archives.

Religious Freedom Day 2012

Religious Freedom Day is observed on January 16th, which is the anniversary of the passage of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom in 1786. That statute, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution.

We are so blessed to have freedom of religion in this country. In many parts of the world, people do not have the right to worship as they choose. Christian pastor Youcef Nedarkhani is facing execution in Iran because he was raised in a Muslim home and converted to Christianity. In the United States, we can be raised in a Muslim home and convert to Christianity or raised in a Christian home and convert to Islam. In matters of faith, we answer only to our God, not to our country or to anyone else.

MOST gracious God who gives us more than we deserve, we yield thee unfeigned thanks and praise for the freedom to worship thee without fear and for all the other blessings of thy merciful providence bestowed upon this nation and people. And, we beseech thee, show thy mercy upon thy servants who live where they lack the same freedom; give them strength to stand fast in their faith in the face of adversity; protect them and give them thy peace that passes understanding; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all glory and honour, world without end. Amen.

Happy New Year 2012!

Happy New Year!

May 2012 bring joy, peace, love, health, and happiness to you and your loved ones.

May God bless all those who love and serve Him throughout the coming year.

ALMIGHTY God, who alone gavest us the breath of life, and alone canst keep alive in us the holy desires thou dost impart; We come to You at the beginning of this year to beseech thee, for thy compassion’s sake, to sanctify all our thoughts and endeavours; that we may neither begin an action without a pure intention nor continue it without thy blessing. And grant that, having the eyes of the mind opened to behold things invisible and unseen, we may in heart be inspired by thy wisdom, and in work be upheld by thy strength, and in the end be accepted of thee as thy faithful servants; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen. (adapted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer)

photo credit: aaron_anderer

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving is not about food, family, or football. Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks to Almighty God for the many blessings we enjoy.

TO our prayers, O Lord, we join our unfeigned thanks for all thy mercies; for our being, our reason, and all other endowments and faculties of soul and body; for our health, friends, food, and raiment, and all the other comforts and conveniences of life. Above all, we adore thy mercy in sending thy only Son into the world, to redeem us from sin and eternal death, and in giving us the knowledge and sense of our duty towards thee. We bless thee for thy patience with us, notwithstanding our many and great provocations; for all the directions, assistances, and comforts of thy Holy Spirit; for thy continual care and watchful providence over us through the whole course of our lives; and particularly for the mercies and benefits of this day; beseeching thee to continue these thy blessings to us, and to give us grace to show our thankfulness in a sincere obedience to his laws, through whose merits and intercession we received them all, thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. ~ Family Evening Prayer, 1928 Book of Common Prayer

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalm 100:4, KJV

photo credit: Joybot

Blog Action Day 2011: Let’s Talk about Food

This year’s Blog Action Day coincides with World Food Day, so the blogging topic of the day is food.

There are so many things that can be said about food. It is essential to our survival. In the developed world, we eat too much and have serious health problems with obesity (and I’m one of the guilty ones). In developing countries, people die from starvation and malnutrition every day.

Yet even here in the US, the land of plenty, not everyone has enough food. So I’ve decided to talk about one small local project to feed the hungry. My church, All Saints Anglican Church of  San Antonio, Texas, operates a Food Pantry.

The church receives donated food from Daily Bread Ministries, a San Antonio Christian food bank that “rescues” food that would otherwise be thrown away by restaurants, markets, caterers, hospital and business cafeterias, and wholesalers. Dedicated volunteers pick up the food and take to Daily Bread’s warehouse, where more volunteers sort and pack the food for distribution to ministries throughout San Antonio. Twice a week, volunteers from All Saints visit the Daily Bread warehouse to pick up food.

Since most of the food received from Daily Bread is perishable, All Saints runs a food drive for a specific staple (such as cereal, peanut butter, and canned goods) on the first Sunday of each month.

Every Saturday morning, All Saints parishioners show up at the Food Pantry to prepare the food for distribution to individuals and families. The Food Pantry is open Saturday afternoon, and food is distributed to anyone who shows up, no questions asked. We don’t always wait for someone to come to us—volunteers have even gone out into the neighborhood to offer food to people in the area. We take seriously Jesus’ words:

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40, NIV)

All Saints offers food for the body with no strings attached, but we also provide food for the soul for those who desire it. Volunteers frequently pray with food recipients, give them Bibles, and even arrange to provide transportation for children to Sunday School. One week a lady asked volunteers to pray with her for a desperately needed job; the next week she returned with a big smile to announce that she had found a job. Recently a man no one knew showed up with a donation of bread. Sometimes children in the families receiving food ask to help distribute food. They enjoy serving others as their families are being served.

William Wimp, who heads All Saints’ outreach program, keeps folks informed about the Food Pantry and other activities on the All Saints Anglican Church Outreach Facebook page. Thanks be to God for the dedication of Bill and Arlene Wimp, Father Chip Harper, and dozens of All Saints volunteers to the hurting and needy as well as for the generous parishioners who donate food. I am unable to participate in food preparation and distribution because of family caregiving responsibilities, so my tiny contribution is simply to tell people about this ministry and encourage their support.

I’m sure today we’ll read many blog posts about organizations and individuals making huge contributions to the problem of hunger in the world. Sometimes we can be overwhelmed by the needs in the world that we think we can’t do anything. Perhaps we can’t individually end famine in Africa, but we can make a donation to help. Maybe we can’t put all the unemployed people back to work, but we can donate a jar of peanut butter or a box of cereal to help one family through the jobless crisis. We can’t end hunger in our city alone, but we can pick up donated food or prepare it for distribution. If each of us does a little, a lot can be accomplished.

As you sit down to a hearty meal or grab a sandwich on the run for lunch, I hope you will think about those who don’t have enough to eat and take some small action to help.

O MERCIFUL God, and heavenly Father, who hast taught us in thy holy Word that thou dost not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men; Look with pity, we beseech thee, upon the sorrows of all in this world who lack food. Remember them, O Lord, in mercy; endue their souls with patience; comfort them with a sense of thy goodness; send relief for their needs; lift up thy countenance upon them, and give them peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Adapted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer)

O LORD, our heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; We beseech thee to bless all who, following in his steps, give themselves to the service of their fellow men. Endue them with wisdom, patience, and courage to strengthen the weak and raise up those who fall; that, being inspired by thy love, they may worthily minister in thy Name to the suffering, the friendless, and the needy; for the sake of him who laid down his life for us, the same thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. (1928 Book of Common Prayer)

Remembering 9/11

That Tuesday morning, I was headed out for an interview for a part-time job. My husband Jack was driving a school bus, and he called me moments before I left the house and told me to turn on the TV. I was flabbergasted to see that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center, but, like most people, I assumed it was a terrible, tragic accident.

I turned off the television and went to the coffee shop where I was to meet my prospective employer. We chatted for about an hour. In retrospect, I am amazed to recall that no one in the almost-full restaurant seemed to be aware of what was happening in New York and Washington. People ate breakfast and drank coffee and discussed business. I commented on the horrific accident at the beginning of our conversation, but then we continued with our discussion with no further thought of planes and towers and New York.

It was only when I got home a couple of hours later that I realized our country was under attack by terrorists. I sat in front the television the rest of the day, mesmerized and horrified by the scenes unfolding on the screen. I wondered then and I still wonder today how everyone in the coffee shop, including me, could have been so oblivious. The part-time job that turned into a failed business is long gone, but the legacy of 9/11 lives on in the memories of the heroism of the first responders, the passengers on Flight 93, the men and women who joined the military to defend our freedom, and the unknown ordinary citizens who risked their own lives for others.

I thank God for them and ask His blessings on our country, our heroes, our fallen, and those who love them.

The following prayers are taken or adapted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favour and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O LORD God of Hosts, stretch forth, we pray thee, thine almighty arm to strengthen and protect the heroes of our country—first responders, firefighters, police officers, security personnel, and military members. Support them in the day of trouble, and in the time of peace keep them safe from all evil; endue them with courage and loyalty; and grant that in all things they may serve without reproach; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country or their fellow man. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

O MERCIFUL God, and heavenly Father, who hast taught us in thy holy Word that thou dost not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men; Look with pity, we beseech thee, upon the mourning of thy servants who lost loved ones in 9/11 or its aftermath. Remember them, O Lord, in mercy; comfort them with a sense of thy goodness; lift up thy countenance upon them, and give them peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Learn more about 9/11 heroes.

Learn more about the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

The following video is a tribute on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

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