Puzzles

Puzzles

I have sung in the church choir for most of my life since I was seven years old so music has always been an integral part of my identity. Music has many times been the source of healing balm for my spirit as God poured out his spirit upon me in worship. Many years ago I endured a painful divorce and for nearly four years I was a spiritual and emotional basket case. During that time I refused to give up on God, although at one point I was tempted, and I continued to sing in the church choir.

One Sunday our choir sang a song, the gist of which was that God would put the pieces of the puzzle of your life back together. As we were singing my heart poured out to God, asking him, “God, how can you put the pieces of my puzzle back together when all the pieces no longer exist?” God so very gently responded, “My child, don’t you see? I can build you a whole new puzzle.”

Many years have passed. My parents are deceased and my children are grown with their own families. My life has taken twists and turns that I would never have considered. In addition to my two wonderful children I now have a daughter-in-law and son-in-law whom I love and four terrific grandchildren I also love and who I don’t see nearly enough of, but then doesn’t every grandparent think that? For more than twenty years I have remained divorced; I haven’t even been on a date.

I haven’t remained single because I have no desire to remarry. For many years I had my hands full juggling multiple plates and trying like crazy not to drop any for fear of dropping them all. But, regardless of my responsibilities or my choices in life God has continued to recreate the puzzle of my life, “guarding and guiding all the way” as another song says. Some day I do still plan to get married but, the who, when and where will have to fit into God’s puzzle. 

What does the puzzle of your like look like?

Writing for Specialty Publications – Parenting

Writing for specialty publications is a great way to develop your writing for a specific niche. The varieties are endless and the competition not a stiff as for a general news publication. Many communities have parenting magazines or newspapers, perfect if you love to write about children and family subjects. I wrote an article titled Children and the Arts: How to Light the Fire and Fan the Flame for the Columbus Parent Magazine. The editor responded to my letter of introduction. We spoke on the phone and after discussing the scope of the article she liked my title and assigned me the story. She sent me a list of local arts organizations and parents with children active in the arts to interview. I had so much fun interviewing parents and children as well as interviewing local arts organization and business owners. It was a joy to write such a positive article about encouraging children to develop their artistic talents whether for a career or just for pleasure. That article led to other writing assignments with other community newspapers owned by the same parent newspaper and lasted for about two years.

Breaking All the Rules

          Popularity was never one of my strengths. Most of my life people have told me I am “too this” or “not enough that”. Growing up on the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation I remember being told that boys didn’t like smart girls and proper ladies weren’t independent. My older brother use to tell me to, “quit using those big college words,” which was any word with more than two syllables. When I asked my parents, products of The Great Depression and World War II, about going to college my father had a real short answer, “No.” After all, I was just a girl; all I was going to do was get married and have kids. Well, I did marry and had two wonderful children who are now married with families and careers of their own. I am honored to be their mother and very proud of them. Unfortunately the marriage didn’t last and I found myself on my own with two young children to raise and an aging mother to care for at thirty-four years old.

          It’s amazing. My ex-husband told me that I was so predictable I was boring. Ever since my divorce life has forced me to do some unconventional things in unconventional ways just to survive and overcome a variety of obstacles. Those obstacles included the advice of people who were constantly offering well-meaning advice about how I should live my life, raise my children and care for my mother. The advice went something like this. “You want too much.” “You need to be content with what you have.” “You have to be practical.” “You can’t do that.” “That’s not the way it’s done.” “Why can’t you just settle for what you have?” “What makes you think you, or your children, can do that?” Without boring you with my successes and failures over the years, all in all, I am satisfied with most of my decisions and I’ve learned to live with most of my failures. The rest is a work in progress.

          For the last 15 years I’ve been developing a freelance writing career and last year I self-published my first book, Home Should Be Safe: Hope and Help for Domestic Violence Victims. This year I am working on working exclusively on developing as many ways as possible to earn income from my writing including opening my own independent publishing company.

          Yes, I’m breaking the rules again. I’m not self-publishing because I gave up on traditional publishing. I’m self publishing because I want to see my work through from beginning to end and I want to help other writers do the same thing. I already have two other writers interested in hiring me to either consult with them on publishing their book or actually publishing their book.

          So, starting today, I’m going to use every possible means to promote myself as an author, editor and publisher. Yes, I should have been doing this a long time ago. There is still a part of that “good little girl” inside me that really wants to follow the rules, but not at the expense of my hopes and dreams and the very real possibility that I succeed in a very unconventional endeavor.

          Stay tuned for the journey of a lifetime, at least for me.