From Chaos to Creation
January 1, 1970
From Where I am Now The other day, I caught the scent of fall in the air, a fragrance that usually fills me with delight but not during a year when spring chose to vacation elsewhere and summer visits only now and then. Our unusual weather patterns, however, launched a bumper crop of lupine in pink, white, and purple that cascaded in chaotic beauty the entire length of our 1,200 foot-long driveway. Rather than the invasive tansy that predominated last year, butter-and-eggs -- the flower not the breakfast -- have since claimed priority status along with sweet scented daisies. “Life is a matrix of miracles punctuated by one interruption after another . . . yet all of the miracles turn out to be dependent on the very interruption that threatened the existence of the miracle before it,” writes Joan Chittester in Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope. It is good to remember this as we continue to endure the uncertainties of the current economic crisis and of life in general which is bound to surprise us in whatever direction it turns. The struggles intrinsic to life can make or break us and we choose how we will deal with them. Struggle stretches us as human beings and forcing us to tap inner resources that might otherwise remain hidden or undeveloped within us. “Beautiful people do not just happen,” writes Elisabeth Keubler Ross. Beautiful people have known and wrestled with crisis and suffering. Updates In answer to your oft repeated question, “when is your next book coming out?” I can tell you that I am deep into the writing of that book, having finally found the voice I want to use; that of the mother I am as I seek to understand, accept, and forgive the choices that culminated in my daughter’s unresolved death in 2001. Publication depends on the manuscript’s acceptance in the publishing world, which also depends on whether The Scent of God has sold well enough to warrant a second book. For that I need your help. If you loved The Scent of God, I would be so appreciative if you would keep spreading the word. Suggest your friends buy, rather than loan, a copy. I would be most grateful. I wish you peace and light and courage.