Tag Archive | play

Author Confessions: What My Dogs Teach Me About My Relationship With God, 5 of 7

Aug31
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: What My Dogs Teach Me About My Relationship With God, 5 of 7

If you haven’t read my previous posts you can find them here, here, here, and here.

ALWAYS WELCOMED HOME

Spatzle began to exhibit signs of dementia and one day when he and Cooper had been out exploring, Cooper returned but I couldn’t find Spatzle. I drove all around the property looking for him and was about to take Cooper out to see if a Lhasa Apso could also be a bloodhound. Before I could do that, Spatzle came trotting through the backyard, happy as could be, filled with burdock. Oh, he had gone exploring all right! Of course, I welcomed my little prodigal home with delight and he suffered the consequences from his wanderings with a pretty intense brushing and a scissors to cut out all that burdock. He still gave me kisses and I, of course, was grateful he’d returned as dementia could have left him lost. After that I had to keep a closer eye on him.

What joy I had when my old dog returned from exploring beyond safe boundaries. He had no idea the dangers that could have been awaiting him. How much more does God try to protect us, but even when we get a little lost, He welcomes us back home with open arms.

DELIGHT IN PLAY

Cooper did well as a dog in our home but when the time came to put Spatzle down, I was concerned that Cooper would be the one grieving. He wasn’t. We of course were heartbroken and I wondered if I would need to find another dog. I didn’t. Cooper became a better dog being an only.

Cooper loved his tennis ball. I would toss it down the hall and it would bounce on the door there and he would run, grow at it and then pick it up and run back to the living room, drop it, growl at it, pick it up and then run back down the hallway. I did have a spare in case he decided he’d rather chase the ball than carry it. He would not play this game outside. We discovered a lazer pointer was even more fascinating for him. We had a routine of him chasing the red dot down the hall and back and forth every night. It was his treat at the end of the day for being a good boy.

What does that teach me? God delights in giving us good things. Rest and play are as important as duty and service. While I can’t quote Scripture and verse on that, in the book of Zephaniah 3:17 it says: “Adonai your God is in your midst— a mighty Savior! He will delight over you with joy. He will quiet you with His love. He will dance for joy over you with singing.” (TLV). God delights in us as much as I delight in my dogs, or my children when they were little and playing. How much more when I’m resting and enjoying this world He created?

Cooper was an amazing dog and when his health failed it broke our heart to put him down. My husband was due to have surgery so we had determined to wait before finding another dog.

That lasted one day. Obviously God had more to teach me.

Do any of these lessons resonate with you? My dogs continue to teach me about my relationship with God and I hope I never stop learning.

Lessons Learned While Writing: Relationships Are Important

May16
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Writing is an isolated task. Even if an author writes in a busy place like an IHop or a coffee shop, we still ultimately do the work alone. As a Christian I believe God is part of that process so “alone” in terms of human interaction is what I’m referring to.

Getting a book published takes a lot of people—beta readers, critiques, editors, marketing, cover art, and eventually readers and reviewers. Writers need people, even if most of us are introverts.

We need relationships. Prayer. Accountability. We need to be reaching out to help others because that’s where we stay engaged in the human race. We need to live life so our characters can be real on the page.

I have found, after coming out of an abusive relationship, that good friendships are a treasure. I can write and it can be cathartic, but I need to do life with others, enjoy a cup of chai or a meal, do something fun, or sit and cry together. This is important to my spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical well-being. I need to keep growing as an individual if I hope to write characters that will also grow through the stories I try to put on the page.

I also need time to play. Whether it’s tug-of-war with my dog, crafting of some kind, a concert, mini-golf with my husband, or a rip-roaring game of Uno. Playing doesn’t need to cost a lot of money. For me playing and decompressing even takes place on my zero-turn lawnmower which my husband has graciously allowed me to do. It’s fun! Sitting and reading a book because I can, not because I need to is a gift as well. Whatever it is, we need to live our own lives fully in this one and only life we have, not just write imaginary stories for others. These experiences give our writing more depth.

It is in one-on-one connection where we grow and are challenged and encouraged. I want my life to count. I pray my words in my stories can encourage and bring hope and maybe even healing to the reader. But if I neglect my husband, kids, and friends, or those I meet at a craft fair, or a writer’s conference, I’m limiting the ways God can use me. Now if I’m unable to go anywhere the writing is great, but it’s still good to have a connection. It keeps me grounded and hopefully helps me avoid some of the sins that can beset creative people.

Making Cards

May27

Reading Time: 3 minutesYears ago I attended a Stampin’ Up! Party and learned how to do all kinds of fun and creative stuff with stamps. Cards are my favorite and it had been awhile since I’ve done this and with a depressingly long winter, even the first day I tried, I didn’t enjoy myself and wasn’t  impressed with my efforts. After awhile though, I started to have fun again. I don’t often let myself play and this was play time. Here are some of the cards I made.

This first trio are done with colored pencils – by my daughter Joy (age 8).

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This next set I had fun using browns, which is not a normal palette for me but was fun. Hey, there was till pink in there…

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And then there were the happy, hoppy frogs… they were fun and I used watercolor pencils for those and some I even cut out and used pop-ups under so they “jump” out at you a little more.

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But I wasn’t done… Some more masculine brown/green/gold but then more cheerful pinks and oranges and lime greens.

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These were fun mixing textures and patterns.

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I have plenty more that I made in about a week (I did about eighty cards). I don’t mail out cards as much as I used to, but now when I do they will be ones made by me and hopefully cherished a little more for the time and effort that went into making them along with putting them in an envelope with an old fashioned stamp and sending them snail mail.