Celebrate the Small Things: Hard Work and Effort

I'm celebrating hard work and effort this week. I worked so hard, I actually thought today was Thursday, the reason I'm posting so late. It's good to work hard though at something you love and enjoy. I haven't slept so good at night in months. I'm doing another polish on my completed book, but it is going much faster this time and feels right. 

Had hoped to start my grow boxes for salad greens, and grow lights for petunias (and whatever other seeds I have left from last year), but there is always this weekend.  



Made a writer friend (she's written a book!) over coffee one day and talked her into starting a blog :) I'm in a new community so this means a lot to me.

Do you ever get so busy, 

you forget what day it is?

Here are some more thoughts on work:


"The highest reward for man's toil is not what
he gets for it but what he becomes by it."
(John Ruskin)

 "Thank God every morning when you get up
that you have something to do that day which 
must be done, whether you like it or not."
(Charles Kingsley)

"St. Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden 
when someone asked what he would do if he
were suddenly to learn that he would die before 
sunset that very day. 'I would finish hoeing my 
garden,' he replied." (Louis Fischer)

Have a Nice Weekend! 

Thank you Lexa Cain for hosting this blog hop!
And co-hosts: L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge  
and Katie @ TheCyborgMom

IWSG: Stepping Forward

 
This is my first time posting to the IWSG group (click link to participate), and already I'm feeling insecure, not wanting to say the wrong thing. But I guess this is a place where I can bare my writer soul and speak honestly, right?

I am trying to finish a novel that has been rewritten so many times it's almost an embarrassment. I've written probably ten drafts (I've lost count) and it's had several critiques. However, it's a far, far different and better book than the one I started writing nearly fifteen years ago. Today it finally feels complete, but I'm overwhelmed with the process of finding an agent and publisher. I know I need an agent. At least that will be my foremost goal in the beginning. I just don't want to back down when the going gets tough, and from what I hear, it will. I really believe in Callie's story, a fourteen year old who along with her little brother searches for their missing mother who disappeared in Thailand. So much of her story is taken from my own experience living in Malaysia and traveling to Thailand (Callie is half Malaysian). So you see, a huge chunk of my heart lives in this novel, but I know I need to be tough and also look at it as a product I'm going to sell. I need to stay objective, right? Is that possible? 

Not sure why I have hesitated so long to join this group, but it only took reading a third of IWSG's book to realize the benefits. I read the chapter on flash fiction and decided to give it a try. I had been editing my novel for so long I wasn't sure if I had a creative bone left in me. I sat down and wrote an entire scene, one I had been mulling over for months but had never put on the page. I realized I had just started another novel. I have since written a second scene, and so I'm very grateful to this group's book for motivating me.


One thing I know for sure is that I need to get the current novel off my desk. So I'm stepping forward and asking for your support, in soft little ballet slippers. Sigh.....I wish had the boldness of a gypsy dancer (hmm...not sure why I thought of gypsies.....must be from Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy. I was reading it while finishing my novel). But you know the kind of dancer I'm talking about. Basically, I'm afraid of the spotlight. I'm the actor behind the curtain, afraid to go on stage. So, I'm insecure, I admit it. Full confession. Am I as hopeless as I feel right now?

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

"Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable."    Published 1886


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

Africa Mercy - Ready, Set, Go: One Nurse's Journey

Another post from Marilyn on the Africa Mercy in Madagascar. Cataract surgeries have begun again, and after reading her descriptions, it truly feels like love in action. This dedicated team has their hands full, and moreover, bad weather is headed their way. It's cyclone season in the Indian Ocean!  ----Sharon


(This is a running email post written by a volunteer nurse serving on the Africa Mercy, a hospital ship that travels the African coast).


"Ready, set, go"
23 January 2015

Cataract surgeries begin again on Monday! This week has been a
time of preparation--half the team was in Tana screening for more patients, and half the team remained in Tamatave to screen for local patients and to prepare housing for our Tana patients at the Hope Center. We moved 65 mattresses across town in an open truck bed on a rainy day. We got the first load of 17 mattresses moved just before the rains started, and we were able to move the rest during an intermission in the rain around midday. At least our patients won't have to sleep on wet mattresses! The next day, we needed to shop for linens and dinnerware for 60 people. Can you believe we accomplished it in three stops? 

It truly was a week of many small blessings. Next week, it will feel so good to be underway with cataract surgeries--that's what we came for. It seems like I've heard a lot of inspiring stories lately from elsewhere around the ship. I heard of one young boy who wouldn't smile at first. He went through surgery rather stoically, but didn't interact with others much at all. Then another young boy with the same problem was admitted, and before you know it, the first lad was befriending the second, and now they are great pals, playing all around the ward, shyness forgotten.
 
At the Hope Center, where patients go to live while they continue
their physical therapy or dressing changes after surgery, there was another young boy, maybe age seven. His caretaker was his
grandmother, but she wasn't very nice to him. He was an unhappy
little guy who wasn't putting much effort into recovery. The staff
of the Hope Center started intentionally loving the grandmother, and she really mellowed. The boy perked up, started working on his therapy, and is now happily riding a Big Wheel.  

Then there was the little girl, maybe aged 4, who was the caregiver for her mother. The Hope Center didn't have running water that day (it happens a lot there), so the little girl was trying to lug a pail of water up the stairs, one step at a time. One of our team stopped to help her. At the top of the steps, Kelly asked the little girl which way to go, but she didn't understand. Kelly took the pail in one hand and took the girl's hand in the other. The lights came on, the grin spread from ear to ear, and she led the way to her mother's bed.

Not all the stories are happy, of course. I'm thinking of an old couple who came to the eye clinic for screening this week. The woman was completely blind, but unfortunately, it wasn't due to cataracts, and we couldn't help her. The man couldn't see very well, but his problem, too, wasn't something we could fix. It was hard to deliver such news, but the reason they stay in my mind as the graciousness of their response. They thanked us quietly, and the old man gently led his wife out the door. His kindness to her touched my heart.

It is cyclone season here. Last week a tropical storm crossed Madagascar to join a rather large cyclone, not far from us out in the Indian Ocean. It could have had a significant impact on us, but fortunately, it headed in the other direction. We did get some pretty good swells, though, that broke a few of our mooring lines. Now the captain has announced a new weather pattern nearby that is predicted to produce even larger swells by Sunday. We may need to anchor offshore for a few hours to ride it out--it's safer than being too near the concrete dock. In the event of an imminent cyclone threat, we would need to suspend surgeries, transfer the existing patients to the Hope Center, along with some nurses to care for them, and take the ship north, out of the path of the storm. February could be an interesting month around here!

Perhaps, next time I'll have some stories from our cataract patients. I'm looking forward to that.

Marilyn 


[Click here to learn more about the nurses and doctors on board the Africa Mercy.]
 

Very Inspiring Blogger Award: Thanks! And Here Are My Nominees

 
My thanks to Deanie Humphrys-Dunne for nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. 

Deanie is a published children's author and you can learn more about Deanie at her blog, where she writes about her books and recent events, and gives writing hints. Her website lists her books and I urge all horse lovers out there to check it out. Her Tails of Sweetbrier (yes, the book jacket is illustrated) was winner of the Silver Medal in the Feathered Quill Book Awards! (2014). 

Deanie asked that I mention three things that inspired me during the past few weeks.

• I've been reading IWSG Guide to Publishing and Beyond and was inspired to try Flash Fiction after reading one of the chapters. I had been editing my WIP for so long I wasn't sure if there was a creative bone left in me. To my surprise out came a scene for a new book I had been mulling over. Now that's inspiration!
• My husband built a Scottish wall! We had a large rock pile that we had recently inherited with the purchase of our new home. Now for a guy who hates outdoor yard work I thought that's pretty amazing. If he can do that, I thought..........I can do (?????). Inspiring.
• A small furry friend comes to my door almost daily. She's white and black all over and purrs lovingly whenever I pick her up. I do not have a pet, but this sweet little cat is the next best thing. She's one of three hangar cats that live in the neighborhood, and she wanders freely from home to home (or hangar to hangar). I admit she's been in my home from time to time and I heard recently that another neighbor gave her a ham bone. We all love her and she's brought me a lot of joy lately, as I sorely desire a pet. So I guess if there is such a thing as an animal giving inspiration, she is definitely it!

 So....here are my nominees:

http://dcrelief.blogspot.com/ (Dixie)
http://createdbybb.blogspot.com/ (Birgit)
http://suzannefurness.blogspot.com/ (Suzanne)
https://eclecticali.wordpress.com/ (Eclectic Alli)
http://dbmcnicol.blogspot.com/ (Donna)
http://tyreanswritingspot.blogspot.com/ (Tyrean)
http://catherineensley.com/blog/ (Catherine)
http://crystalcollier.blogspot.com/ (Crystal)

These bloggers have been an inspiration to me. I have enjoyed their insights, encouragement, humor, and shared stories.


Rules for the Nominees:
1. Thank the person who nominated you, and link to their blog.
2. Display the award logo.
3. Nominate 15 other bloggers (more or less) and provide a link where they may be found.
4. Go to their blog, leave a comment to let them know they have been nominated.
5. Mention three things that inspired you the most during the past few weeks.

Celebrate the Small Things: A Writer's Poem?

Excerpt from "Voices of the Night, Prelude" by Henry W. Longfellow, 1839

Courtesy: http://www.freeimages.com/

. . . "Before me rose an avenue
Of tall and sombrous pines;
Abroad their fan-like branches grew,
And, where the sunshine darted through,
Spread a vapor soft and blue,
In Long and sloping lines.

And, falling on my weary brain, 
Like a fast-falling shower, 
The dreams of youth came back, again--
Low lispings of the summer rain, 
Dropping on the ripened grain,
As once upon the flower.

Visions of childhood! Stay, oh, stay!
Ye were so sweet and wild!


And distant voices seemed to say,
"It cannot be! They pass away!
Other themes demand thy lay;
Thou art no more a child!

. . . "Athwart the swinging branches cast,
Soft rays of sunshine pour;
Then comes the fearful wintry blast;
Pallid lips say, 'It is past!
We can return no more!'

"Look, then, into thine heart, and write!
Yes, into Life's deep stream!
All forms of sorrow and delight,
All solemn Voices of the Night,
That can soothe thee, or affright--
Be these henceforth thy theme."

Keep on writing . . . 

Thank you Lexa Cain for hosting this blog hop!
And co-hosts: L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge  
and Katie @ TheCyborgMom