Winner – Canadian Christian Writing Awards

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Lynn

Pinch me, I won!  Yes, I am the winner of the Canadian Christian Writing Awards in the Blog – Series category!

Believe it or not I was actually cleaning my bathroom when I got word of my win.  After jumping up and down and doing a “happy dance” for a bit, I realized that I still needed to go and scrub the toilet….couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the many ways that God humbles me!  LOL!

Today I’ll re-post my winning articles “The Author of Life” (first posted on March 9, 2010) and tomorrow I’ll re-post the second article: “Even Though I Walk Through the Valley” (first posted on Feb. 9 2010).

I didn’t get a chance to be at the Word Guild Awards Gala, held in Mississauga this year, but here’s my acceptance speech read on my behalf by my publisher:

” I regret that I cannot accept this award in person but I wish to thank my publisher, Word Alive Press for accepting on my behalf.  I am honoured and humbled to be recognized for this prestigious writing award.  I would just like to thank my family and friends for encouraging me in my writing, and thanks must go particularly to those who read my blog, “Journey Thoughts” regularly and all those who enjoy reading my books as well.  Thank you again.”

“The Author of Life” – Canadian Christian Writing Award Winner (Article in Blog Series)

My house is slowly but surely crumbling into disarray.  I see dust bunnies scurrying with wild abandon under my coffee table only to gather in little “burrows” in every corner of my room.  My foster pup, Samson, hasn’t been put out in hours…his little feet are pitter pattering on the floor…he’s trying to get my attention.  Does he want to play or is he desperate to relieve himself?  I haven’t put on my makeup, brushed my hair…gasp…I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet!  I haven’t washed the dishes in the sink, or thought about what to make for supper and I haven’t set foot outside in days.  Was this the life I pictured when I decided to write books?

I am buried in the plot created in my own mind.  I can’t let it go.  When I sleep I think about it, when I am awake I think about it.  I have created a world of characters that have become real to me…I’ve even thought I should see if they have profiles on Facebook.  That’s how real they seem.  I have seen the inside of their homes, I have met their parents, I know their thoughts and I know what  they are feeling.  I feel like I know them better than my own children at times because I know what they will say or do before they say it or do it, and if I don’t like it I can change their actions by a simple use of a delete or backspace key.

It is the oddest feeling of supernatural power being a fiction writer.  I can make the characters be good, evil, mute, emotional, dull, irresponsible or responsible.  I have ultimate power over their actions….mwhuuuuhahaha….I feel almost…divine!!

It’s a scary thing this power!

I am so happy that I am limited to enact this “divine power” in the somewhat safety confines of the pages of a book.  What would the world be like if I had this kind of influence, if I had this kind of absolute power over real people I came into contact with every day?  If I made a mistake that destroyed their character I couldn’t just delete the words or backspace for a do over.

Today I rediscovered Psalm 139, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways….I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

I may consider myself to be a writer but He is the Author of Life!  He leads us, He directs our steps, He loves us and He weeps for us when we go our own way.  He also never makes mistakes!  (Psalm 145:17)  God does not use delete on us, (even if sometimes our actions may deserve it), instead He picks up the storyline, exactly where we may have left it and helps us rewrite the plot, not so we get the glory but so that He does!

So while I continue to fumble for the correct words and phrases to use as I write Heal the Wounded, the sequel to Shoot the Wounded, and erase and backspace to my heart’s content until the characters and plot line are just right, I am thankful that the Lord perfected MY LIFE STORY from the beginning of time.  “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Posted in Inspiration & Devotion, Proverbs 16:9 - Journey Thoughts, Write On! | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

A Blight on Our Nation

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Lynn

My readers are well aware that I am a hockey fan.  In Canada, hockey is considered OUR sport of choice and the Stanley Cup is the pinnacle achievement for any hockey player to win.  Again, no secret that my favorite team is the Montreal Canadiens and because I live in the city, I cheer on the Calgary Flames as well.  There is great rivalry between the NHL teams in Canada and the U.S.  There is also great rivalry between the nations as a result.  When a Canadian team plays a U.S. team it becomes a Canada VS U.S.A. event even if the majority of players on a U.S. team may be Canadian born, and vice versa.

I will admit I had little interest in who won or lost the Stanley Cup this year with the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins getting to the finals.  I am a fan of neither team, however I am a fan of hockey in general and I enjoy watching the playoffs regardless of who is playing.  That said, being Canadian I favoured the Canucks to some degree…it’s the Canadian thing to do to cheer on the Canadian represented team.  However it was not lost on me that the majority of Boston’s team had some hometown heroes on their roster.

It is not the final game however that will be remembered, it will be the riot that followed on the streets of Vancouver after the Canucks loss 4-0 to Boston in the seventh and final game.  Vancouver already has a tarnished reputation for the rioting in 1994 after Vancouver lost to New York in that Stanley Cup final.  One would think that city officials in Vancouver would learn after that event to not allow large group gatherings in the downtown core.  However, insisting that Vancouver fans had learned to behave better, today they are likely rethinking the decision to allow tens of thousands of people to watch the game on wide screens set up in the downtown area.

Town officials say it was initially a “small” group of troublemakers that started the riot and fanned the flames of violence for the night.  However as I watched with shock and horror the news footage of the vast numbers of people on those streets who stood and  cheered on the destruction; took pictures of themselves by the burning cars and then aided and abetted those who entered the Bay department store to loot and continue to vandalize, there seemed to be more hooligans than law-abiding citizens on the streets of Vancouver last night.

Unfortunately what happened in Vancouver last night not only tarnishes the city’s image…again…but casts a dark shadow on our entire Nation.  No one will remember the hard-fought victories of great hockey teams paired up throughout this year’s play offs.  Sadly, shopkeepers and business owners will return to work this morning and spend their day or days cleaning up the mess, counting the cost to their livelihood as a result of last night’s rioting.  Certainly they will not remember the Stanley Cup Playoffs with any kind of fondness.

It will be bantered about for months, perhaps years who’s to blame for this violence.  There will be no definitive answer.

It is a sad day in our Nation.

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Dry Grad

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Lynn

Sunday morning, May 29th.  The kids are just starting to wake up after cat-napping on and off all night.  I hear giggling from a few of the girls who have decided an early morning swim would help them start the day at 5:00 a.m.  A few voices are heard upstairs, a little more subdued than the night before but still the familiar tunes of Mario being played on an X-Box filters down to me.  Four boys are outside throwing a football.   The sun has barely come up, but there they are passing the ball around oblivious to the fact that it’s only 4 degrees celsius.  I glance into the family room and see a few more young people sprawled on the floor and draped over couches.  I am amazed they were able to sleep at all considering the noise and laughing all around them throughout the night.  Suddenly two girls are sitting by my piano and their voices blend together in harmony, singing praise and worship songs.  It is Sunday after all.  One of the girls still has her hair neatly coiffed from yesterday, and I remember the beautiful gowns and tailored suits of the boys as they escorted their dates up the aisle celebrating their grade twelve graduation. 

Graduation.  It is a time of celebrating, but these particular graduates have opted to celebrate differently than other grads. 

I don’t know when the world started to turn upside down around Graduation, but it is like all rules, laws and morality flies out the window at After-Grad parties.  Named “SafeGrad” as if it legitimizes it in some way, suddenly it’s okay to serve liquor to minors.  Suddenly it’s okay for parents to allow their children to stay out all night, knowing that they will be drinking.  Suddenly police, parents, schools and others seem to turn a blind eye to SafeGrad parties and say it’s okay for one night for teenagers to get drunk as long as they do it “safely”.  What???  I am perplexed that well-meaning parents, even Christian parents, allow their children to participate in this form of celebration at Grad when it would definitely not be tolerated at any other time of the year.    

My daughter graduated from a public high school in 2002.  When we, as parents, met as a planning committee to discuss “SafeGrad”, (Note: SafeGrad is a long-standing high school tradition where new graduates — both minors and those of legal drinking age — are bused to a secret location to drink alcohol and party under the watchful eye of parents and volunteers after graduation ceremonies.  The event is highly organized with strict rules, which include that no outside alcohol is allowed and minors can only be served alcoholic drinks by their parents.  The supervised and controlled drinking environment with a guaranteed safe ride home prevents drinking and driving and keeps the graduates away from unsupervised bush parties.) I was the lone dissenter.  I asked if we could offer a “Dry Grad” to those students who did not want to drink alcohol, but still wanted to go to a party.  I was laughed at.  One mother actually said, “No one will come to that kind of party.  They want to get drunk, and we should let them.”  I suppose it got me a bit riled up (I’m not one for backing down easily), so I quit the “SafeGrad” committee and instead sent word out to the graduating class and their parents, through my daughter that we would host a Dry Grad in our home for those who did not want to attend SafeGrad.  Fifteen graduates attended.  They swam in our indoor pool, soaked in a rented hot tub, and played board games and watched movies.  My husband and I stayed up all night as the chaperones and in the morning my husband cooked up a batch of pancakes for the teens.  It was a wonderful, fun-filled evening and the grads had a blast!  

It was a no-brainer when our son graduated for us to offer to host a Dry after-grad party.  This time fifty teens attended!  They brought a huge sound system and blared music throughout the house all night long.  They swam, they sat by the campfire, they even set off fireworks at 1:30 a.m. (good thing I had warned my neighbours in advance…hahaha).  We had set up video games in two rooms, and then at around 4:00 a.m. when the grads were starting to power down a bit, we put in a movie and although some snoozed, others continued to play Dutch Blitz, or video games or swim all night long.  There was laughter and fun and there was absolutely no alcohol.  It proved to me that not all kids want to get drunk on their grad night.  These graduates partied, but they partied safely and there were no regrets the next morning.  I overheard one young man say to his friend as they were leaving, “I know a bunch of guys that are waking up this morning with hang-overs and are puking sick.  I am tired but I feel great and I had fun last night.  Wonder if those guys can say the same thing this morning?” 

Congratulations BCS 2011 graduates!  It was an honour and a privilege hosting your after-grad party! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Family Life, Proverbs 16:9 - Journey Thoughts | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments