Aaaaagh! Time is
running out on me!
I’ve been sorting out church council minutes and agendas and
associated papers – taken me ages as usual.
I promised to tell you about the Servants With Jesus today
but that’ll have to wait for a less busy day now, cos I still have urgent
writing to do – deadline approacheth.
Sooooo . . .
Let me just show you this picture which I love love love.
This is my friend Alice with her little girl in the
garden of their home.
Alice is a Quaker who takes seriously her Simplicity
Testimony. She does good work extending
the Peaceable Kingdom in the Midlands of England – where she has (despite many
obstacles) been part of establishing a community garden on wasteland. Go Alice!!
Here she is at work in the community garden.
Does
my heart good.
15 comments:
Oh--Hi Alice! Nice to see more of you than just your head. Your Garden is delightful!
Good luck with your paperworking Pen!!!
:0)
Alice in her Wonderland! Absolutely lovely. I am very interested in that garden.
:0D Yes indeed!
Lovely pictures, does Alice have a blog?
I enjoyed reading yesterday's post and had fun reading the seven sisters, those gals are delightful!
Good luck with the paperwork!
San xxx
:0)
Alice is on Twitter and Facebook, and also on Quaker Quaker, but as far as I know she doesn't have a blog or a website.
I hope the urgent writing flows from your mind with ease and you finish well in time!
And thanks for these lovely photos and introduction to your friend. Community gardens are such a brilliant idea and we need more of them. And simple, humble people, too. We definitely need more of them as well.
Thanks for introducing us to Alice...I'll look forward to your promised post. Meanwhile, wishing you quiet moments and ability to concentrate on the task at hand.
Ember, whatcha writing? :-) Are we going to hear more from St Alcuin's, Abbot John, Thomas, William, and Madeleine, Cormac, and the rest of the brothers and novices? I miss them! Encountering them and welcoming them into my heart changed me.
Hi Beth - 'simple, humble people' - I loved those words, had to go back and read them again a couple of times; yes, when I pray for 'the needs of the world' I will remember to add in 'simple, humble people'.
Hi Rebecca - thank you! I have *just* enough time for the task in hand, provided I am utterly disciplined about it!
Deb D - I am writing a Lent book. It's for publication in time to be promoted for Lent of next year, so it absolutely has to be finished by the end of March latest. It is a kind of reflection on the meaning in our lives of 'wilderness' in all its aspects, and the form it takes is fictional, a series of encounters and dialogues with Jesus in an ordinary life. In most books, fiction or non-fiction, there is basically one idea explored over however many thousand words the book is. I realised after I'd begin this project that in writing a different encounter with Jesus for each day of Lent, I had to come up with 47 different ideas, one for each day (they say Lent has 40 days but I think they must knock off either Holy Week or the Sundays to get that). The most rare metal in writing is an original idea - that's why this is such a hard book to write! And I'm having to dig down deep for some authentic and vital stuff because - well, man, writing about talking to Jesus . . .!! Anyway, that's what I'm on now.
As for the Hawk & the Dove series, yes, it's almost two years since I left the manuscript for Book 7 on the desk of the publisher - but they wouldn't say yes and they wouldn't say no. The books sell well enough that they wouldn't say no, but not well enough that they would say yes. They said maybe for well over a year. So for the past several months my UK publisher has been doing the work to publish Book 7 with his company. To make sense of it, that means bringing the whole series across, which is obviously expensive for my English publisher to do. So the deal isn't done yet, but I hope and pray it will be, because I really want to finish that series. Book 7 continues William and Madeleine's story, and probes into exactly what 'happily ever after' might really mean! Each book looks at some aspect of Christian teaching, and Book 7 explores the teaching in Ephesians 5 about submitting to one another. It looks at the importance of how we speak to one another in particular, the daily conversation of life at home, and how healing or hurtful that can be. I am very keen to have this book available, because I think people would find it helpful.
Then I have a further three books planned, bringing the series up to ten in all. Book 8 is hatching in my mind and I am eager to begin writing it. But the publishers have to go cautiously, because publishing really is a numbers game, and unless the projected sales sums add up they can't commit to the risk. But I hope I'll know in a month or two if that series will be taken forward or not. Thank you for asking!! x
Ember: Thank you for taking the time to share so much and bring us current with the status of The Hawk and The Dove series. I will pray for the series to come to the completion you intend, as I believe God is using you and the work you have put forth in these novels to reveal a depth of truth that is beautifully presented. I am sincere when I tell you I love these people. And (selfishly) I yearn to see how their lives progress. What a fabulous approach for book 7 to address the topic you've laid out. It fits the story line so well. I imagine William will be stretched much as his childhood home life was so far from what the scriptures lay forth and Madeleine may encounter some difficulties if William's history impacts his behavior toward her, as I recall she was raised in a very loving and enchanting environment. Bringing two lives together which were so diverse and so independent (even with how much they love one another) will eventually present some difficulties. I KNOW I will be changed by reading it and it will be so apropos for this time in my life, too. Your current work, the Lent book, intrigues me as I anticipate it is rich with insight, and I will stretch out my arms to it to welcome it into my library when it is released.
God bless you with discernment, wisdom, and clarity of mind, and may He mulitiply your time and efforts to speed you along your way in this current project.
Thank you, Deb! I cannot tell you how much it means to me to have encouragement such as you express here.
:0)
xx
that's really awesome!
:0) x
Friends, a couple of our comments have been deleted from here, and the text of the post slightly altered, because Alice thought - and I agree - that it is wiser to refrain from adding names to photos of children on the internet.
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