“The RoseBouquet”

(a page from a devotional book in progress)

Ecclesiastes 2:26 To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Wow! I’ve marked this before, but haven’t thought of it lately.

Is this true now though in my life? I do hope I please God, and I like to think He is granting me wisdom, knowledge and much happiness! The monies I’ve received in the last year or so are not really from sinners, but from Christians who wanted to help.

But still, if God wants to turn sinners’ money over to me too, … I’m open to any of His gifts, aren’t you? Can you picture this; you live a life that pleases God, so He gives you wisdom, knowledge and happiness, and He has sinners raise funds or wealth, which they turn over to you?

Once a former neighbour who remembered me from my childhood met me in a public place, and seemed to know all about me. He was watching my life. He insisted he wanted nothing to do with church, but he held out $20 to me and said he wanted me to have it as long as I would spend it on myself and not give it to my church.

About three months ago I heard a young woman raising support for full-time missionary work share how a couple, not believers, had come to her and said, “We’ve been watching your life and we want to help you out. Here’s money to help you buy a house for you and your daughters.” It was a check for $250,000, and she was able to find a house for that price!

PRAYER: How shall I understand this, Lord? The first part I grasp, for You do give wisdom, knowledge and happiness when our lives are obedient and pleasing to You. Do You really give the sinners the task of gathering wealth for those that please You? If so, that is tremendous! Thank You for being so creative in supplying our every need, and the resources to do Your work in Your name. Amen.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ on that first Easter morning was such a WOW! event that people sometimes have a hard time comprehending what it means. However, there are illustrations in nature and history - that act as simple symbols to help us get it.

Let’s do this as a series of quiz questions, or riddles to see if you can spot these allegories of Christ rising to new eternal life after three days in the grave.

Some of these should not be analyzed too deeply, for there is only a surface comparison. The point is that this concept was not a new idea to God. It was pre-meditated!

1. What ovid object is perfectly sealed, without doorway or seams, until the right day, when a new life bursts forth, perhaps like Jesus burst out of the sealed tomb?

2. What shining orb disappears into darkness for a time, then breaks out again with great joy and gladness at its appointed times to give life and energy and food to all who receive it? (Hint: in the Psalms it’s compared to a bridegroom coming out of his tent to get married, but don’t let that lead you astray).

3. There is a colony of small creatures, whose leader is larger and more gifted than the rest. This head gets richer foods than the others, but it procreates new colony members too. There is a point where this leader lays down its life for the whole colony. What is it?

4. Jewish people have an annual holiday supper, where right on the table some bread is hidden in a fabric pocket. Toward the end of the meal this bread is ‘found’ and broken and distributed to all. What is that meal called?

5. Jesus Himself told His followers that a certain man from their history, who spent three days in the belly of a huge fish, was a foreshadowing of what would come to pass for Him. After his sub-marine ride, this man thundered, “Repent!” in the streets of a pagan city. 100% repented. Who was he?

6. Followers of Jesus, who want to be identified with Him publicly, announce this by a special rite they go through. Jesus did it Himself. It represents their spiritual death and new life in Christ, which can happen privately; this rite is merely the public illustration and only takes seconds to complete. What is it?

[Answers are way-wa-y down at the bottom of this page: Rssurrection-quiz]

When you visit or drop in on a friend, what do you think about their housekeeping? Do you notice the differences? I do.

Rarely do we have friends whose style of home-making is the same as our own. Because of the friendship though, we overlook these things.

When I was a teen my Mom insisted that I do the weekly cleaning on Saturday. That habit is still with me. Unless something special comes up, I tend to leave my housecleaning chores until Saturday. The rest of the week I just live there. I can’t say I love cleaning, but I’ve learned to discipline myself, set some sequence of steps, and when I think I have more time I get distracted by settling down to thoroughly organize one desk or cupboard, or whatever. I guess I prefer the sorting and organizing stage best once I get into it.

My home always seems cozier and more inviting at the end of a Saturday cleaning binge. I wish friends would drop in about then!

The homes of some friends look like works of art. Everything neatly in place, and placed just so-o, with no more than one or two attractive objects on any furniture surface. No sign of a project in process or any mess whatsoever. I enjoy looking at such a place, but feel a bit out of place. This makes me a very careful, polite guest.

Then there are other homes which go the other extreme. Risky piles of stuff stacked up everywhere and every which way I look. Naturally, I try not to embarrass my friend by commenting on all this, although I’m sure I have trouble hiding my thoughts.

I don’t know about you, but the craziest yen rises in me to come in there and do a major clean up. The other morning I caught myself visualizing how to do this while I was in the bathtub.

Let’s see… we should dedicate a week to it, and the friend and I ought to work at it together. I would bring a stack of boxes… no, better still those plastic bins - colour-coded even! I’d also snap out some packages of coloured garbage bags.

I’d say, “Here. We’re going to look at every item and you decide; is it garbage? Then it goes into these black bags. Is it something you’d like to sell at a garage sale or give away? Then into these clear bags. Is it something to keep for an heirloom or treasure? Then it goes into one of these bins, and you label it. Only what you actually use on a regular basis gets a place in a bin in the closet, or a home-spot in your house where you can see and find it easily.”

We’d also have cleaning rags and buckets and cleaning products and as we’d get to the surface underneath we’d wash the surfaces, and also vacuum or wash floors.

Oh yes, and we’d start at the far back room, maybe the bathroom, and work our way around, room by room, until we end up at the front door. Once we’ve cleaned a room we don’t stash any of the filled bags or bins there. They have to keep moving behind us towards the door.

Having been through this kind of cleaning last year in Dad’s house, I know that you have to allow extra time. Like a whole half day to a room, or maybe two days on a large one.

There’s just one problem with such a daydream. Such friends have daily living habits that will put their home in exactly the same state in a short time. Who am I kidding?

Do I really want to invest that kind of time in someone else’s home?

I thought I had my fill of it last year, but… what should I charge if I were to land a job doing this for an estate where someone has died, and there is no family to do the clean up? (The woman at Dad’s trust company said I had saved his estate a lot of money by doing it so she wouldn’t have to - hmm - how much?)

[Okay, Ruth. Come back to reality. You’ve still got a lot of work like that to do down in your basement. It must be time to start if you’re in a mood like this!]

Yessir! As soon as I get caught up on some small jobs for others, I will tackle that basement! Every Saturday this spring and summer until it looks wonderful!

I read of a woman who has written a collection of 800 poems and she wondered how she should get them published. What would you do if that was you?

That’s prolific! I’d like to see the quality of the poetry and the range of topics, but if you are able to produce poems that liberally, maybe you ought to check into publishing them too.

Have you come to the conclusion that marketing poetry is something of a euphemism? There are few commercial outlets, and few readers will buy a book of poems. Even poet laureates have a hard time making a living.

Most of us would like to have our poems printed in handsome form in a book, and be able to give copies to our dearest friends. So why not self-publish? It’s an ancient and honourable way to do it. Today, with the advent of e-books and Print-on-Demand (POD) it has never been easier or cheaper.

Note that a printer prints, and a publisher makes copies of the work public, and offers it for sale. You may hire a printer or a quick-copy shop to make up your book, but don’t expect them to sell it for you. That’s your role if you self-publish.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to publish. If all that’s holding you back is the know-how, then let me outline the simple how-to right here.

Let’s cover print publishing steps first, and then electronic, but remember you can do both at once.

[Read the rest of this article online in my Sharing Library: How to Publish Your Poetry]

My friends seem to either love cats or hate them. I thought I could be totally indifferent to pets. I guess because Dad did not care for house pets, so I had resigned long ago to just caring for plants. Now that I’ve had my cat, Snowflake, for about a month, I’ve come to see how much I am like a cat myself.

Or is it the other way around; how much Snowflake is like me?

That’s within boundaries, naturally. I am innately curious too, but I don’t pull things apart, and …I don’t whine for attention, do I?

So much for philosophizing. Let the pictures tell their story first. You need to meet Snowflake before we start building empires of thought on cat behaviour.

Go to - Meet Snowflake in Pictures

Hasn’t she got a pretty face?

I’ll try to get a photo page about my cat Snowflake done for next week. I promise.

Meantime, here’s a couple of links I found quite thrilling yesterday; it’s the singing of a great Welsh hymn about the love of God on two different occasions. “Here is Love, Vast as the Ocean.”

See this song performed by a Welsh Church Choir

And another version by Huw Priday

Songwriters; William Rees (1802-1883) Robert Lowery (1826-1899)

Read about my novel. Or, go directly to the Order Page,

Or, Read sample chapters of my first novel online

Order the e-book to download and read on your computer

You can order the softcover paperback from Brooklocker

[If you don’t have a romantic valentine for this week, consider sharing my Best Friend. He is able to be your perfect friend as well as mine, and treat each one exactly as we most need Him to be - the Ultimate Lover of our souls].

Allow me to rave and rhapsodize about my very best Friend in the universe!

My friendship with Jesus colours and affects every other friendship I have. Whether the other parties know it or not. If I did not have my intimate daily conversations with Him, I would not be the kind of person you’d even want to have around, never mind call your friend. Jesus gives me sanity. He gives me a calm acceptance of myself, and yes, even a caring interest in others.

He has never deserted me, though I’ve been driven to tears by His apparent silence. Then later I learned as I dig into the Bible, that it is His method of showing me I’ve wandered off the right path. It means I need to stop and consider where I’m going and make a decision to get back on the path. (He’s quite willing to help once I’ve made that decision of my own will!)

Which reminds me to point out that although Jesus loves me tremendously, and has laid down His life for me, He will never compromise truth and justice, or God’s own holiness, to pamper me or cater to my whims.

Truth is… well, it’s the essence of my dear Lord and Friend. It’s His very nature, mixed with love, joy and peace. So hanging out with Him has got me craving for truth at the core of my being. I want to know and believe the absolute truths He teaches.

Want to know why? Because those truths liberate me to experience His love, joy and peace to ecstatic degrees.

Example? Okay, once I really chose to believe God loves me and is carrying me on His arms (Deut.33:27) it took away all the doubts about whether or not I could really publish my book. When I saw Jesus’ commands to Ask, Seek and Knock, and the promised results as real guarantees, I got a great respect for praying very specifically, hunting for knowledge that I lacked, and knocking on certain doors of opportunity. The key turned in the lock!

It’s in these learning experiences, and unloading all my desires, ideas, and emotions, whether positive or negative, on Jesus that we have a lively relationship.

That same lively relationship teaches me how to care for others, and causes me to be the sort of friend to them that Jesus is to me. Now I know this is usually an unspoken, maybe only faintly understood sub-current in many other’s lives, but I’m being very transparent and direct here right now as I spell out this super-special friendship I have with my Best Friend of all.

Sometimes a good “honesty-session” is like the sun coming out on a misty, foggy day. May this frank Close up of Jesus be like brightening, healing, cheering sunlight to you. Reach out. He’s great enough to be the best Friend of everybody in the whole world.

In fact, that’s why He died on that Precious Friday some 2000 years ago - for every-body to get up close and personal with Him!

We should not compare others against our own standards and judge them in a negative way, but that comes very naturally to us. It takes a deliberate struggle to think respectfully of other’s ways and means of doing things.

Several real life instances have brought this together for me in a clearer way recently.

When cleaning up my Dad’s estate last year we came across many things that my brother and I saw differently. Ernie thought most it was junk and would not sell at the auction. To a large degree he was right. It didn’t, but as I continued the clean up by myself, I kept coming across things that I knew Dad had saved for when it might be needed. Some of them I recognized as things I would very likely need as I moved into a house of my own, so I claimed a number of them. Already some have proved very useful, including some tools and scrap lumber, and small rolls of carpeting.

Much as I’d like a spotless and attractively arranged home, I’ve resigned myself to the space problem. I do intend to dispose of some things, but when people come to see my home, if they don’t come out and say so, I can sense that they think I’m squirreling away stuff they would throw out. I have to work at forgiving them because they do not think in the resourceful way that Dad and I think. Some of those things will be turned into very useful things yet. Even gifts.

I confess, I have been in some homes, which struck me as hopelessly messy, and in need of a major cleaning - and carrying out. In fact, when I used to go north to visit my sister Elsie and babysit her children, I would try to tidy up and do it carefully so I wouldn’t lose for her anything she might be looking for.

There is a time factor to take into consideration too. When I had less career type duties, I would spend more time on cleaning up and keeping a place neat. Now I am finding that I have to give myself grace for times when I simply cannot take the time to clean because things of greater urgency have priority.

Last Sunday, because of major work that has to be done on the basement in church, the Resource Room that I have been looking after has to be moved and that quickly. Our new Sunday School Superintendent came into the room and said, “Everything on that side of the room looks like junk to me. It has to go.” It caught me off guard, although I tried to be polite about it, and suggested a plan to offer it in a Give-Away before it goes to the garbage. However, I confess it was a cut for I thought that stuff was resources for creative teaching sessions. Not everyone sees things the way I do.

In the next hour, a guest preacher spoke on how we should not compare others against ourselves. I knew that was true, but I didn’t see a clear application to that Resource Room situation, except to let go. It’s not really mine after all. (Of course, letting go thoughts can lead to other thoughts).

I’m concluding that perhaps I’m a messy person after all, and that instead of thinking of myself as superior to others who are worse, I need to accept the title and wear it without blushing. I also need to forgive those who compare my areas of housecleaning with their lovely show-homes and look down on me. Just because they are disobeying a Scriptural injunction, doesn’t mean I should return the attitude. Instead, I’m taking my first step in learning to defend my position - I am just managing creative resources, and I am fairly well stocked.

People used to come to Dad to fix things. He was able to do that because he had the right stuff on hand. I’m standing on his ground. Leave my resources alone, thank you!

Author Unknown (a Gem of an article I saved)

Everyone in the apartment complex I lived in knew who Ugly was. Ugly was the resident tomcat. Ugly loved three things in this world: fighting, eating garbage, and shall we say, love.

The combination of these things combined with a life spent outside had their effect on Ugly. To start with, he had only one eye, and where the other should have been was a gaping hole. He was also missing his ear on the same side, his left foot has appeared to have been badly broken at one time, and had healed at an unnatural angle, making him look like was always turning the corner. His tail has long ago been lost, leaving only the smallest stub, which he would constantly jerk and twitch.

Ugly would have been a dark gray tabby striped type, except for the sores covering his head, neck, even his shoulders with thick, yellowing scabs. Every time someone saw Ugly there was the same reaction. “That’s one UGLY cat!!”

All the children were warned not to touch him, the adults threw rocks at him, hosed him down, squirted him when he tried to come in their homes, or shut his paws in the door when he would not leave. Ugly always had the same reaction. If you turned the hose on him, he would stand there, getting soaked until you gave up and quit. If you threw things at him, he would curl his lanky body around feet in forgiveness.

Whenever he spied children, he would come running meowing frantically and bump his head against their hands, begging for their love. If they picked him up, he would immediately begin suckling on your shirt, earrings, whatever he could find.

One day Ugly shared his love with the neighbors huskies. They did not respond kindly, and Ugly was badly mauled. From my apartment I could hear his screams, and I tried to rush to his aid. By the time I got to where he was laying, it was apparent Ugly’s sad life was almost at an end. Ugly lay in a wet circle, his back legs and lower back twisted grossly out of shape, a gaping tear in the white strip of fur that ran down his front.

As I picked him up and tried to carry him home, I could hear him wheezing and gasping, and could feel him struggling. It must be hurting him terribly I thought. Then I felt a familiar tugging, sucking sensation on my ear, Ugly, in so much pain, suffering and obviously dying was trying to suckle my ear. I pulled him closer to me, and he bumped the palm of my hand with his head, then he turned his one golden eye towards me, and I could hear the distinct sound of purring.

Even in the greatest pain, that ugly battled scarred cat was asking only for a little affection, perhaps some compassion. At that moment I thought Ugly was the most beautiful, loving creature I had ever seen. Never once did he try to bite or scratch me, or even try to get away from me, or struggle in any way. Ugly just looked up at me completely trusting in me to relieve his pain.

Ugly died in my arms before I could get inside, but I sat and held him for a long time afterwards, thinking about how one scarred, deformed little stray could so alter my opinion about what it means to have true pureness of spirit, to love so totally and truly.

Ugly taught me more about giving and compassion than a thousand books, lectures, or talk show specials ever could, and for that I will always be thankful. He had been scarred on the outside, but I was scarred on the inside, and it was time for me to move on and learn to love truly and deeply. To give my total to those I cared for. Many people want to be richer, more successful, well liked, and beautiful, but for me, I will always try to be Ugly.

– Author Unknown

Found in ServetoLead

If you are a writer from whom the articles just flow, and you want to know where to go online to be published - better still, to get paid for your writing, then I have some advice for you.

Recently two different friends said they were posting articles on http://www.helium.com/ but getting disappointed in the lack of attention and payment. I went to investigate that site and do some research. Ah-ha, shades of Suite101.com revived! (It still exists, and there are others. See this page for some outside reviews of how suite101 treats their writers; Suite101 is looking for writers).

When I first came on the web in 1999 I stopped to read anything and everything for and about writers and writing. I met a number of people who became my subscribers, who loved to share about their articles posted on sites like suite101. There were others, but that’s the name that pops back in my memory now. I was already busy writing content for my sites and ezines, but I recall when Angela Hoy the Editor/publisher of Writers’ Weekly urged writers not to give away their writing at such sites. They were doing a disservice to all writers generally. Much as I wanted to get paid for my writing, I was willing to give it away for free too, just so as to build up my reputation as a writer. That where a lot of beginning writers are at, and it explains why helium and suite101 attract hungry writers.

Eventually I came to see Angela’s wisdom in this. Those sites do not screen for quality, and though some promise to pay you it is the site owners who are raking in the cash. As soon as I did a google search for related sites ones commenting on helium.com I found this blog with some bitter insights; Guedelbouy blogspot

I don’t want to shoot down my friends, and I don’t want to say “stay away” from such sites, because you can use them to your advantage in some circumstances. But I would advise you to do some serious research so that you use the best ones, and you know how to use them to your benefit.

Writing is a good and worthy skill. If you are going to give it away, treat it like a fine gift, and don’t toss it into a pigstye to be trampled. Rather take time to research and learn how to use your writing like a sharp tool in your hand to accomplish much good, and yes, to support yourself financially.

There are also many article directory sites. They were popping up faster than popcorn last year, but the first one I ever encountered was Marketing-Seek. Rozey Gean was the first online person to correspond with me. She’s streamlined her site tremendously, but I know she screens the articles on her site carefully, and that’s a safe place to post your articles, and for publishers and website owners to go get good content. However, she doesn’t pay you.

Another very good one is IdeaMarketers.com Marnie Pherson, the founder and operator of that site is a prolific Christian writer herself. Just watching how she markets her books is an education.

These women will both tell you that when you post free articles and offer them to others to use, you are really using your articles as long ads to win you visitors to your web site. It’s a very effective and free promotional tool. You write professional quality articles, and make sure that in your short bio description at the end, you put a link to your website. When people read your article and are impressed with your knowledge, they click that link to learn more about you, and voila, you have a warm visitor to your site, where you may have a book to sell them.

If you really want to make money with your articles, you need to put them on a professional-looking, domain-site of your own, and place Google’s AdSense ads (no cost to you) strategically on your web pages. Then, depending on the keywords in your articles and their value to advertisers with Google, you will earn money from the clicks visitors to your site place on those ads. (I made $200 that way last year, and expect to get that and more each month once I have my new SBI site up and flourishing!)

If you have enough written on any one topic to create an e-book, you can sell it from your site as an info-product and make money as your own publisher! Or simply put them on web pages, and let the AdSense ads be your quiet income stream.

You can also sign up (again for free) with appropriate affiliate sites, and place links to their products on your web pages that have related keywords. When your visitors click on those links and purchase the affiliate owner’s products, you will get a commission. Of course, this hardly amounts to anything until you build up traffic - lots of visitors to your site. If only one in a hundred is going to click and buy, you need to have hundreds of visitors daily to your site.

This is where many site owners are now becoming article writers and posting them on as many of those article directories as they can. Because it’s free advertising, right? Do you see how it is the prolific writers who can win best at this game?

That’s assuming that you will take the time to research and study how it is all done, and take the time to build a good, profitable themed site. Once you understand how to do this, you don’t have to limit yourself to one site. Repeat your success.

If you are not such a great writer, or the words don’t flow easily for you, you will need to team up with a good writer friend, and work out a mutually acceptable agreement, so that you run the system, and the writer provides the content.

If you really like the idea of an article directory or database site, and if though you don’t think you can write well, you do recognize good writing… then here’s another idea. Go to ArticleDashboard and download the free software to set up such a site on your own domain. Let other writers submit articles to you, and you just sit there to read and screen them. Make sure you plaster effective ads all over your web pages, and you can make money off of other writer’s articles.

As your research and grasp of modern publishing opportunities increases, you may want to consider self-publishing. Here’s a couple of sites with some excellent and very frank information; FonerBooks and ParaPublishing (a great reference site!)

You may also want to check out Print-on-Demand publishing, but research that carefully because there are con-artists in that new field too by now. I found thirty of them when I settled on Booklocker. I’m sure there are many more. But this topic can be a different article.