A Few of My Favorite Things

What do you think of my new header? The middle photo (in the header) is a close-up of items shown in the photo to the left. A similar photo now graces my Facebook page.

My photographer/daughter Jill and I gathered items from around my home and placed them on a small trunk -- a $15 yard sale find.*

We added items, took others away, moved things around -- laughing with and at each other. Finally it all came together.

See the Avon perfume bottle at the left? I've had that since I was a teen. The photo behind the perfume bottle is actually a box. All the note cards that came with it are gone, but I keep the box on a bookshelf.

A distant cousin gave me the clay jar. He found it and several others buried near a creek on his southern Ohio farm. He believes they were made by our ancestors.

The jewelry box was a going-away present from a co-worker when I left my last job. The pearls came from my husband.

The faded photo in the right corner is of my parents at a very young age -- that's newborn me cradled in my daddy's arm. The unusual frame was a Christmas gift from a dear friend.

Look closely and you'll see a pair of brown cowboy boots perched on top of a stack of books (including McGuffy Readers I've had since childhood). My middle grandson Jedidiah wore these boots, and I fell in love with them not just because he wore them but also because of the little tractor embossed on the ankle of each one. It was a happy day when my son-in-law gave them to me.

Ah, my lovely hat, the same one I'm wearing in the header photos. My friend Joy (seen with Carol Anne and me in the header photo on the right) gave me this hat at Christmas to celebrate my novel. (The photo of the three of us was taken at my book party this past March.)

Then there's that beautiful sign. It actually says "Minivers of London" and was created by my talented friend Mandy. Readers of Where Treasure Hides will recognize Minivers as the name of the tea shoppe where Alison and Ian ate cherry scones . . . and fell in love. (Sigh!)

These are just a few of my favorite things. If you'd like to share photos of a few of yours, please send me an email at johnnie dot donley at ymail dot com. I'd love to put them on my blog.

*(Okay, Jill found the trunk, not me, but it's in my writing room, and she's not getting it back.)

Love: The Universal Language by Clella Camp

 

Our granddaughter, Anneke, is Romanian. She turned two in December before she came home to our family in February. So many moments of heartache ended when she arrived. Her sweet smile and her spunky personality were obvious from the moment we met, but her language was Romanian. Until our daughter, her husband and her new big brother picked her up at the nursery in Romania, she had heard no other language.

Her first weeks with her family were all new experiences-for her and for her new parents. Each time my daughter left Anneke, even if she was only going into another room, she reassured her child, saying, “I’ll be right back.” The language difference did cause difficulty at times although love is a universal language, and Anneke understood from the first meeting that she was loved.

She would stand in front of her Dad and “jabber”.  It was obvious she was speaking Romanian because the sounds were the same each time she repeated them.  Her Dad would sigh sadly, “Oh, honey, I just can’t understand.” This would be repeated numerous times; then she would place both hands on her hips and give him what the family now calls the Anneke look as she stomped away. She quickly learned English, but I lived an hour away and did not hear her each day.

Perhaps a brief explanation needs to be inserted for the reader. I had not been as positive as a Christian mother should have been about this adoption.  The stories I had heard about foreign adoptions had filled my mind with doubt. My children had a 12-year-old son (also by adoption), and I felt they might be in for heartache with this move. My faith was lacking.

On this particular day, we had agreed to meet at a McDonald’s that had a playground where Anneke could play while her mother and I visited. We found a booth close to the area, and after we had finished our lunch, Anneke jumped from her seat, turned and patted me reassuringly on the knee and said in the clearest, most distinct English I had ever heard, “I’ll be right back, Gramma.”

With tears on the surface and a knot in my throat, I turned to my daughter, “Getting her may be the smartest thing you have ever done.”

“I knew you would think so, Mom.” She smiled.

Anneke is 16 now, and I still treasure this moment when I heard her speak so clearly and so sweetly as she promised to come right back. I also still believe this is one of the smartest things her parents have ever done. She is a treasure in our life.

 

Clella Camp is the author of Just Walking, a devotional for people who love to walk. Clella is a retired secondary English teacher who  has been married almost sixty years to the same man. Their two children are in specialized Christian service. They also have four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Clella and her husband live in Illinois in the summer and Florida in the winter. She loves people (particularly teenagers; who knows why at her age), does some speaking (her friends say she is a natural for this ) walks and plays golf…she admits that she likes pretty clothes. She blogs at Clella's Corner.

Surprising and Unexpected Treasure by Jean Wise

I live in a precious container full of treasures. Sounds like my father is a pirate and sails the seven seas, doesn’t it? 

My Father isn’t a wild buccaneer nor bandit but a loving Giver of all things. 

My treasure chest? The world - inside and out. 

Last week, northern Ohio finally decided to break out in spring with shouts of colors, warm breezes, and budding trees. Pink blossoms, yellow daffodils and lush green grass soothed the senses. A pair of robins built a twig nursery right outside my office window, and I am now on ‘baby’ watch for the excitement of new life and bouncing hungry heads. 

In the earlier seasons of my life, I was too busy to appreciate these treasures. Now I pause and breathe them deeply into my soul. I stand surrounded in the wonder of blossoming nature, tiny miraculous creatures and heavenly praise songs from a chorus of feathered angels.  

Apprehend God in all things,

for God is in all things.

Every single creature is full of God, and is a book about God.

Every creature is a word of God.

If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature, even a caterpillar,

I would never have to prepare a sermon.

So full of God is every creature.

—Meister Eckhart

 

When I was younger I sought to be unique.

To find the differences.

To stress the accomplishments.

Now I find the treasures in the ordinary. 

The similarities that we share with all living things.

To be instead of to do.

 

"The great lesson from the true mystic . . .

is that the sacred is in the ordinary, 
that it is to be found in one's daily life,

in one's neighbors, friends and family, 
in one's back yard." 


— Abraham Maslow

I am learning also to embrace the beauty of the treasure within me.  I think most of us struggle with self-doubt, unfair comparisons, lifelong weight of nicknames from sixth grade, failures and sins that cloud self image.

 

God sees us as treasures. He created the spotless, beautiful mirror deep inside our souls that bear His fingerprints and reflect His love.  As I get to know this Master Artist better I discover that we all are priceless masterpieces.

You. Me. Everyone - a precious treasure.

By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established;

through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

Proverbs 24: 3-4

This world we live in overflows with heavenly bounty. Outside the jewels of nature await our wonder and discovery. Inside each heart lies a pearl being made holy.

One majestic Creator skillfully crafted a world jam-packed with treasure - waiting for our discovery. 

Jean Wise is a freelance journalist/writer and Christian speaker at retreats, gatherings and seminars. She is the author of The Great Communicator: Reflections for Speakers and Writers that is available at Amazon.com or Smashwords.com She lives in Edon, Ohio with her husband enjoying their empty nest. Find out more at her website: www.jeanwise.org or her blog: www.healthyspirituality.org

Carla Comes Around by Teresa Slack

My guest this week is author Teresa Slack. Today's post features her recently released novel Carla Comes Around. Her soon-to-be released novel, Sarah's Sin, was featured on Thursday. Both stories are in Teresa's True Stories Celebrating Love & Family.

Teresa spent most of her writing career focused on novels. Her first, Streams of Mercy, won the 2005 Bay Area Independent Publishers Award for Best First Fiction.

Her latest novel, Runaway Heart, was published in February and is available for purchase as an e-book by Helping Hands Press.

But she’s recently discovered writing short stories is a whole lot of fun.

Released May 1, Carla Comes Around was a fun story for Teresa to write. While she never felt as though she was running away from anything like her story’s heroine, she definitely felt few people would miss her after she left her small southern Ohio town following graduation. 

Carla Comes Around is the second of Teresa’s series True Stories Celebrating Love & Family.

The next installment, Sarah’s Sin, is due out next week—a very unconventional Mother’s Day release.

Carla Comes Around

Happiness for Carla Fischer was Cartersburg, Tennessee in her rearview mirror. She couldn’t wait to ditch the tiny town where she spent a rotten childhood as soon as the ink was dry on her diploma. When she receives an invitation to her thirtieth year class reunion, she doesn’t waste a moment thinking about going. There’s not a soul in town she wants to see. Well, okay, maybe one soul, but Tim Shelton barely knew she was alive thirty years ago. She doesn’t expect him to remember her now. 

When Carla’s sister Patty announces she’s sinking her life’s savings into a local gift shop, Carla leaves her hectic life in Atlanta and heads to the one place she said she’d never go. Cartersburg hasn’t changed in thirty years, but Carla has. Hiding behind a hard veneer to protect her fragile heart, she has no interest in reconnecting with old friends. But everyone wants to see Carla, the small town daughter who never came around after fleeing to the big city. 

As time for her thirtieth-year reunion draws nearer, Carla is reluctantly drawn into her sister’s excitement over her plans for the gift shop. Carla wants to be part of her sister’s life, but she loves her life in Atlanta. Can she forsake her career for something that has alluded her most of her life? Peace, contentment, family. When Tim awakens a long dormant love in her heart, Carla begins to wonder if Cartersburg is the only place for her that’s truly home.

Check out Teresa’s short stories and other titles on her Amazon author page and wherever else books are sold.

Learn more about Teresa and her writing on her FaceBook page and website.

Everyone who leaves a comment here will be entered in Teresa's book tour giveaway for a chance to win one of five (5) e-copies of Sarah's Sin featured this past Thursday. Happy reading.

Sarah's Sin by Teresa Slack

My guest this week is author Teresa Slack. Today's post features her soon-to-be-released novel Sarah's Sin. Come back on Saturday to read about her recently released novel Carla Comes Around. Both stories are in Teresa's True Stories Celebrating Love & Family.

Teresa spent most of her writing career focused on novels. Her first, Streams of Mercy, won the 2005 Bay Area Independent Publishers Award for Best First Fiction.

Her latest novel, Runaway Heart, was published in February and is available for purchase as an e-book by Helping Hands Press.

But she’s recently discovered writing short stories is a whole lot of fun.

Released May 1, Carla Comes Around was a fun story for Teresa to write. While she never felt as though she was running away from anything like her story’s heroine, she definitely felt few people would miss her after she left her small southern Ohio town following graduation. 

Carla Comes Around is the second of Teresa’s series True Stories Celebrating Love & Family.

The next installment, Sarah’s Sin, is due out next week—a very unconventional Mother’s Day release.

Sarah’s Sin

Just in time for Mother’s Day—a very unconventional Mother’s Day story

M is for the many things she gave me.

O means only that she’s growing old

T is for the tears she shed...

Okay, so not every mother inspires songs, poems, or roses named after her. Some mothers are hard to honor, and even harder to love.

All Sarah McWhorter ever wanted was her mother’s love and respect. She learned early in life her mother wasn’t the classic June-Cleaver type who baked cookies and bandaged scraped knees and kissed away bad dreams. She also suspected the fault lay with a sin Sarah didn’t understand—a sin that kept her mother from loving her.

The story of Sarah’s birth is a family scandal everyone knows but no one talks about. Now Mom is dying, and Sarah hopes to repair their relationship before it’s too late. Regardless of the cost, Sarah must know if it’s too late to earn her mother’s love. Unfortunately the truth might be too painful to bear. Or worse, Mom truly despises her for the sin she represents, and Mother and Daughter, so much alike, are too broken to be fixed.

Check out Teresa’s short stories and other titles on her Amazon author page and wherever else books are sold.

Learn more about Teresa and her writing on her FaceBook page and website.

Everyone who leaves a comment here will be entered in Teresa's book tour giveaway for a chance to win one of five (5) e-copies of Sarah's Sin. Happy reading.