Many Veterans, Many Thanks

Veteran's Day is a good day to say thanks to all of those who have given their lives, or some portion of their lives in service to our country.

My Grandpa Andrew gave twenty years of his life to the U.S. Army as a Sargeant, in the Calvary Unit. During WWII, he was re-trained as a tank mechanic, but I think he missed his horses.

My Dad's younger brother, Raymond Ralph "Buddy" Gillespie served in the Army until he died while in a car accident, while on leave. I never knew him, but heard many of his stories while I was growing up. My dad, being the reserved man he was, always talked about "Buddy" with such closeness and such love that I thought Buddy was his best friend, and didn't realize until I was older that Buddy was his brother. They had many adventures together. As an only child, it was my first glimpse into the possiblity that siblings could be friends.

My cousin Myron serves in the Airforce. His brother, my cousin Duane, served in the Navy for four years.

My father-in-law served in the Marines.

My husband served in the Navy for two years, full-time, and for nine years as a reservist, as an electrician and as part of a reserve E.O.D. unit.

We have two family friends who served in the Coast Guard, Greg Novlan, and Chris Herzberger.

Two of my childhood friends, Bob Hougham and Michael Hougham, served in the Navy and Airforce, respectively.

Many of our church family serve, or have served in the military. Some are in the Middle East today.

My parents may never have served in the military due to disabilities (amputed leg, and partial deafness), but they have always honored the military in their words and actions. I am thankful to them for showing me throughout my childhood and adulthood what it means to be a civilian who honors our country's military.

I know I have been priveledged to know so many that have served our country in war and peace, and I am thankful that our country is free, and that our country has the best volunteer military in the world.
Many thanks to all who have served. May God Bless you in all that you do.

Submission Excitement

Currently, I have four works out in the nether world of editorial slush piles, waiting for a response. I made three of those submissions last week, and one tonight.

I can't describe the excitement, and the hopefulness, mixed with the anxiety of waiting to get a response. Will they accept my work? Reject it? Ask me to make changes and resubmit? Just offer a contract? Reject it with good critique that actually helps me become a better writer?

I won't know until those responses come. And tomorrow, instead of thinking about it, I will write again, and maybe even submit something again. I've found it's better to keep writing, and not lose sleep over possible responses.

But for now, fresh from the submission process, I know it will take some serious distraction to get those thoughts out of my head. I wonder if I can find something adventurous, fun, and maybe even funny on netflix?

Taste and See!

Psalm 34:4-8
"I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces never covered with shame.
This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
he saved him out of his troubles.
The angel of the Lord ecamps
around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."

Pumpkin patch poetry

Muddy pools lead us
through the corn maze to giant
pumpkins, wheelbarrows
and slingshot contests that
we actually win this year.

So we bring home our prize,
golden and round, barely
squeezing
in the back of our van with
its smaller cousins.

There are plans for
the carving, and plans
for the painting,
but I just
want the seeds,
toasted crisp and
salted sweet.

A poem a day

A poem a day keeps the doctor away, right?
Maybe, maybe not.
I plan to try it out for the rest of the year.
Just short poetry, nonsense poetry, any day, every day, bad or good, rain or shine kind of poetry.
So here's one for the day (which means I can't submit it anywhere else because this is considered self-publishing . . . grumble, grumble).


Writing each day
Is like the apple
Keeping the doctor away
Making me unflappable
Or at least okay.

So, if you see it here, it's probably not my best stuff - but who knows, maybe there will be some hidden gems in the midst of all the mess.

Breath of Heven update

Woohoo!
Haruah: Breath of heaven, found at http://www.haruah.com/ just published some more material online!!! Not only do I like the new story and poem present there, I have another reason to be excited. I have a publishing contract with them for one of my poems, so sometime within the next 15 months, they will publish it. I hope. Now that I know that they are still publishing (they didn't put anything new at their site for three months), I have hope that my poem will make it online at their site sometime soon, and in their quarterly magazine. I didn't realize there were many quarterly e-zines in existence, since most e-zines publish at least weekly, and then possibly have print publications quarterly or annually.

Admission of Pride

Ok, I'll admit it. I overstepped myself the other day bragging about my kids donating to charities every year on facebook. The reality is that last year's giving basket was shoved into the back of a closet and forgotten. Well, not completely forgotten, but procrastinated in an extreme manner.
We gave shoeboxes filled with goodies to Samaritan's Purse. We gave to a food bank. My husband's office did the Christmas Tree with all the goodies for his work. Meanwhile, our giving basket went untouched.
So, finally, after realizing that I put my foot in mouth in an overly prideful brag, we finally gave that $71 my daughters saved away, along with matching funds from John and I.
Here's what my daughters decided to "spend" their giving money on:

A donation to World Medical Mission through Samaritan's Purse - $20
1 rabbit through World Vision (for a food source) - $16
donation for education for girls in developing countries - $35
5 fruit trees for food in developing countries - $30
Mosquito bed nets for one family, to protect them from malaria - $18
Help for children for disabilities - $25

Watching my girls pick out their favorite areas of giving was so wonderful, I had to wonder why I had procrastinated so long over doing this simple thing.

So, now the giving basket is empty, and if we want to fill it up by Christmas, which is our usual goal, we have only a short time. I know that God will provide.