Advice from a long-lost journal

There it was, a journal from years back when I had discovered the power of writing through turmoil. My son had died and I had bottled-up emotions, wild thoughts, and just enough anger to propel me into the pages of a notebook with flowers on the cover.

Later I shared the impact writing had on me for clarity and calm when I taught writing workshops:

“Just write. Just find a word and let it be the one to write about. Or find two and string them together.” That was what I told my classes, my students. “A word might come to you in a song or conversation. Take its hand and start. No one has to see what you write in your notebook. You don’t have to read your work. You don’t have to share it with anyone. It is not like the only cookie or the last cookie in the jar and you have to let those around the table have a nibble. This is your work. This belongs to you alone.

“It is your lifeline, your therapy. And it is cheap. It will comfort you, your own words will heal you. Just keep writing and don’t let go. Write until your hand cramps and if you haven’t finished getting it all out there, write with that cramp. Keep unloading, the paper can handle it. Your heart has been carrying the heavy ache for so long, share it with the pages. Nothing is too hard or heavy for a piece of paper to absorb.”

In this season of COVID-19 when your emotions might be flying around the rooms of your house as you practice social distancing and stay at home procedures, make friends with a journal and a pen. Just start with a word and keep going. As they say at Outback Steakhouse---No rules, just right!


What does journaling do for you?

*Gives you a safe place to write your thoughts
*Allows you to unleash your hurts, worries, and fears
*Teaches you about yourself
*Shows you how you handle your joys and woes
*Helps you solve many of your problems


For more inspiration, check out this writing video created for me. Turn up your speakers; this video is made to inspire.

In the Time of Coronavirus - A Time to Soul Search

Panic. Fear. Uncertainty. Disbelief. Sorrow. Control-less.

In this historical era of COVID-19, how are you affected? As you listen to the news reports that change every hour, what have you become?

A few years after my son died (those of you who know me, know that Daniel's death will always be my Ground Zero), I wrote a poem about becoming. I was not who I used to be when he was by my side laughing with me and eating a bowl of Cocoa Puffs. In bereavement, I was morphing into something new---like that caterpillar when he turns into a butterfly. It didn't feel pretty. There were days of loneliness, wondering who my friends were, how I would make it to the next day. One foot in front of the other was a major task. I cried so much that my eyes stayed puffy and red. I wanted to fist-punch those who said trite things. I hated who I was.

What are you doing during this fearful season of your life?

Some people are hoarding toilet paper. We laugh, but as I stared at the empty shelves where toilet paper has always been at my local Harris-Teeter, I didn't feel like laughing. When the disgust left me, the deeper feeling was a sadness toward humanity. Because to me hoarding toilet paper (of all things!) shows me that people are not only fearful, but trying. They are trying to gain some control of a control-less situation. We are told to stay home, wash our hands, keep away from crowds, and yet, all of that sounds too simple and easy. Can't we do more? We're smart, certainly there's more we can do to make this virus go away or to try to preserve some feeling of security. "I can't hug anyone, I can't go on vacation, I can't go to work (or I've lost my job), but, hey, I can have enough toilet paper. So take that, you nasty Coronavirus."

When Daniel died, I wanted to figure out why. Why had he died? Why hadn't he been miraculously saved? Why him? He had cancer, but other children with neuroblastoma lived. Then we learned from the autopsy that he was cancer-free. It was the first we had heard that news. He'd been through eight months of treatments and we'd never heard cancer-free until the autopsy report. I feared I had missed a cue. He was supposed to have lived and I messed up.

Admitting that I had no control was a long process. When we think that we have boundless control of our lives and those around us, we are living a myth.

Hoarding toilet paper, hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes is a way of trying to gain control in a chaotic era.

So what to do you want to become? How do you want to get out of your cocoon and emerge into a free-floating butterfly?

Bereavement opened the door for me to explore things I had never done much of before. In the midst of pain and suffering, I discovered that I was becoming a woman who shed spiritual platitudes ("God won't give you more than you can handle", etc.) and also someone who dispelled the myth that life is all under my control.

What can you do during this time of uncertainty?

* Write -- a poem, that short story that's been playing around in your mind, that song, that letter to a friend
* Read --- Dust off that copy of To Kill A Mockingbird or A Tale of Two Cities
* Pray --- Ask God to show you how you can love others around you and how you can surrender your life to him (good luck with that one, it is a daily task)
* Nurture friendships --- but be sure to stand at least six-feet apart
* Create --- a garden, a new board game, a speech, a blog post, a recipe
* Donate ---- food or money to a charity

Let this be the season to contribute something YOU into the world besides anxiety and fear.

The virus has affected the globe. It's a vicious thing.

When we get beyond the virus, however long that will take, and are able to resume our more normal lives, what will we have become?

Will you be wiser? More compassionate? Less selfish? Will you be someone who lives out gratitude?

Will you be the person you want to be?

Start now.

Cooking With Author Norma Gail

I welcome author Norma Gail today on my Cooking with Authors portion of my blog. Norma has a recipe for us and a new book coming out. Read on to learn more!


New Mexican Green Chili Stew

4 lbs. of lean beef stew meat, diced (may use pork)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large onion, medium chopped
1-2 lbs. of potatoes, chopped
1 lb. of carrots, sliced
2 16 oz. cans of diced tomatoes with liquid
2 16 oz. cans of pinto beans with liquid
24 oz. of roasted green chili, diced – either canned or frozen (as mild or hot as you like)
Water to cover

Coat meat with flour and brown with garlic and onion. Mix all ingredients together in a large crockpot or stew pot on stove. Add water to the preferred consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook all day until meat, potatoes, and carrots are tender.

Serve with warm flour tortillas with butter and honey, bread, or sopapillas. Enjoy!

Thanks for that recipe, Norma. Sounds like something I will have to try. Next tell us about your upcoming novel.


Within Golden Bands – A Home for My Heart Book 2 is the sequel to my 2014 release, Land of My Dreams – A Home for My Heart. The first book is the story of Bonny Bryant, an American college professor, who accepts a job at a small Christian college in Scotland to escape heartbreak and loss. Love is the last thing on her mind when she meets fellow professor and sheep farmer, Kieran MacDonell. Together, they discover that the greatest blessings come when you leave the familiar behind and take a step of faith.

In Within Golden Bands, newly married Bonny MacDonell finds the transition from American college professor to Scottish sheep farmer’s wife more difficult than she expected. Though her husband says he has accepted her infertility, she fears his reaction when her miracle pregnancy ends in a devastating miscarriage. However, Kieran never shows up at the hospital. When found, he is beaten and unconscious. The only memory of his attacker is the words, “Get off my land.” As a result, his parents reveal a family secret involving an altered deed and missing aunt. Reeling from the threat to her husband and the loss of her child, Bonny struggles with depression.

As Kieran's elusive attacker stalks the family, threatening their safety, the couple is forced to hire bodyguards. Bonny still longs to be a mother but Kieran fears his deep-seated opposition to adoption will drive them apart. Are faith and love strong enough to keep their fledgling marriage on solid ground? Will they choose to trust God when his ways are impossible to fathom?


Thanks for joining me at my blog, Norma.


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Norma Gail writes Fiction to Refresh Your Spirit. Her contemporary novels, Land of My Dreams, which won the 2016 Bookvana Religious Fiction Award, and Within Golden Bands (releasing May 19, 2020), explore the theme of women whose faith triumphs over trials. A women’s Bible study leader for over 21 years, her devotionals and poetry have appeared at ChristianDevotions.us, the Stitches Thru Time blog, Inspire a Fire, and in “The Secret Place.” She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, Historical Writers of America, and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. Norma is a former RN who lives in the mountains of New Mexico with her husband of 44 years. They have two adult children.

Ways to connect with Norma --- follow her blog, or join her on Facebook, Twitter, or Amazon. She is also on Pinterest, Instagram and Goodreads.