Wonderfully Made by Liz Flaherty

"My emotions aren’t in the dictionary." - Heather Lende

The other day, on Facebook, I read this from Deuteronomy: "Foreigners who live in your land will gain more and more power, while you gradually lose yours. They will have money to lend you, but you will have none to lend them. In the end they will be your rulers. All these disasters will come on you, and they will be with you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep all the laws that he gave you."

I admit it...I'm not a Biblical scholar. But something about this didn't fit with what I've spent a lifetime as a Christian learning. Which was this, from Leviticus: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

Leviticus had some other rules, too--a bunch of them. I've always liked most of them. But there in Chapter 1, talking about burnt offerings...I kind of skip over that, because it's not reasonable, because we've gotten past things like that (or should have), because when we are made (wonderfully, by the way--Psalms) we are given brains to learn with, minds to think with, strength to do good, hands to give generously from, and hearts to love one another. We have these powerful senses to see rightness (and its opposite) and beauty, to hear justice and mercy (and their opposites), to taste, to smell, to feel the things that build and add to the original wonderfully made. 

Heather Lende 

Heather Lende says her emotions aren't in the dictionary, and mine aren't, either. Neither are yours. We get them from how we're made and what our environments have added on. We get them from those senses we all have and how we choose to use them. We get different ones because we are different--which is something to be celebrated. 

I admit celebrating unlikenesses--like the differences between the Deuteronomy passage and the Leviticus one--can be hard. Even accepting them can be hard, but we are indeed too wonderfully made for it to have been done with cookie cutters. No, it's more like we were made from scoops of dough. We're not the same shape, the same color, some of us have more salt or chips or--heaven knows--more nuts. But we're all part of the whole. We all have flavor and the ability to give pleasure and sustenance. 

Unless we choose to be otherwise. To do otherwise. To confine our emotions to a dictionary.

Have a good week. Be nice to somebody. 

Amazing Days by Debby Myers

Have you noticed how everyone is talking about April 8th? Many of us will be elated to experience the most astounding astronomical event of our lifetime. The solar eclipse. Yet I’m going to have a really hard time being excited about anything, including a total eclipse, on April 8th. It’s also my daddy’s birthday.

It's been 35 years since my dad died in the dead of winter in January 1989. He suffered a massive heart attack. I shouldn’t say he suffered. He died before he hit the floor, as the doctors told his sister that his heart exploded. It’s been 35 years since I’ve seen his face or heard his voice call me his "little ground squirrel." On April 8th, he would have been 83 years old.

His name was Ernie. He was born in Elizabethton, KY, and his family moved here when he was 12. He was 23 years old when I was born, and he went to work at Chrysler. To hear him tell the story, he instantly fell for my mom the first time he saw her. As soon as she graduated high school, they were married in December. I came the following July.

In high school, he played basketball for the Peru Tigers. Their team won the sectional two years in a row. He held the record for best free throw percentage and highest scorer up until the time Kyle Macy came into the picture. When Kyle broke both of his records, he became his biggest fan.

He loved the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Bears. But basketball was his first love. He rooted for the Kentucky Wildcats and Los Angelos Lakers. I’d have to say my love of the game came directly from him. We would sit and watch Kareem and Magic together whenever he was home, which wasn’t very often.

My first memories of him were all playful. Taking me by the hands and swinging me around in a circle, sitting in our little pool with me in the backyard with his feet dangling over the edge, giving me a big plastic bat and pitching a whiffle ball to me over and over, and helping me climb the tree in our backyard.

As I grew older, I remember spending a lot of afternoons at the softball field at Maconaquah Park watching him play. I also remember spending evenings at Hillcrest Lanes watching him bowl. Most girls my age were at home playing Barbies or outside on their swing set. I was hanging out with my dad.

I wished I had his southern accent. His was just slight, not as evident as my grandma "Gigi." Dad took me and my brother, Jeff, to her house often. She always made four-course meals for us. And you had to clean your plate to get dessert. Dad was used to it. He would eat and eat, and if we couldn’t finish, he would wait until Gigi left the room and finish our plates, so we could have her homemade from scratch cake or pie.

I will always love and miss my dad. April 8th I will be remembering him on his birthday. His sudden death was the most staggering day of my lifetime. And I’ll be thinking of him when I’m watching the most astounding astronomical event of my lifetime.

The Vee Trilogy tells the story of two families from different sides of the track. It starts set in 1969 in Brookton, Pennsylvania when the families are fused together through marriage and their saga begins. The Crawford’s and Hayes’ families are followed over four decades until 2009. Their struggles and celebrations remind us of how one marriage changes the lives of dozens of people for years to come as they are all entangled in three family businesses, sibling rivalry, and the parent/child dynamic. This cozy mystery shows that crime and addiction happen in all types of families and even small communities. ‘Vex and Valor” introduces us to the heroine of the series, Vanessa Hayes Andrews at the age of ten. “Verdicts and Vows” will bring the reader closer to the characters as we say goodbye to some and meet new family members. The final book "Verve and Virtue" has just been released!


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0948D9ZJG?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_b_lnk&storeType=ebooks