-
From The Heart
“…and Mary treasured up all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Most mothers love to tell about the day their children were born. These are some of our best stories, overflowing with life-threatening suspense, transformation, the miraculous and in the end, joy. As with all our stories, we make choices about what to include and what to leave out, depending on the audience, depending on the purpose in the telling. But none of our stories can match Mary’s. How happy she must have been to sit down with Luke and have a chance to tell her account of Jesus’ miraculous conception and dramatic birth, which she had been…
-
Christmas Moment(s)
Part of what is overwhelming during the holidays is spending 24-plus days planning for a single day event. Or if you are one of the lucky people to start Christmas the night before, two days. It’s similar when you plan a novel. The characters, plot, editing, theme, formatting, reviews, marketing… There’s so much to mange that you might freeze instead of start. Interestingly, both Christmas and new releases have a similar letdown on the day after. Christmas is intense focus on gifts, meal, food…a perfect minute. And the more expectation you have, the greater the chance of disparity between want and reality. Instead of trying to see and plan the…
-
Best Christmas Ever!
Creative non-fiction from Lisa Hess... "Outside, shapes started to emerge from the dark and the fog—a frosty white Christmas is a gift in itself—and as I listened to the sound of my family starting to stir, I thought about how happy Jake’s joy made me that Christmas morning. There are few gifts more precious to a parent than seeing your children overtaken by joy. Nothing compares."
