The amazing came

I wonder if
they had any idea, or an inkling of what was
to come?

Or, if they
grew up to learn a trade, got
married, had children, worked hard, fished, cheated,
cursed, till The Lord called their names

Then their world’s filled with light

Brighter than sunlight on Lake Gennesaret

And they followed when He walked on the sea

Healed the lame and the
blind, made the
living from the dead

And they carried this light even when He
had to leave them

They followed Him in death

But left His Living Word for me

and you in your boat

floating out
on some sea

Look up from your work

From the tasks that concern you

Is He there on the shore

In the
Glimmer of the sea?

Is He
calling your name?                                                              AMW C2012

So often our dreams are perched just over the horizon. We can never know how close we are to what God has planned for us.

Our Creator is the One who planted creativitiy within us.   Dream Big on this day of Dreams.

Please share your dreams. Let’s bring them into reality!

“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls…” Jeremiah 6:16

A new year is like a road untaken. We can look back at our foot prints and places of stumbling and wrong turns, but we can’t see what’s ahead. How can we know the right direction? Even if we’ve already turned our lives over to The Lord, how can we be sure we are making the best decisions?

If we take apart the scripture from Jeremiah, we see that God tells us to stand there in the ways. I’d take that to mean we should stop moving and take account of exactly where we are. Then, we ask for the old paths. I believe those paths are probably lifestyles and principles that we already know to be true and godly and sensible. Then, we should ask God to direct us. And while we can’t expect to avoid every problem (because we are still in this world) I do believe that praying for God’s guidance and making sensible choices will help us walk in peace down a good road.  

As part of asking for the good way, prayerful goal setting can help direct our paths as well. Writing down our goals helps to make them manageable and real.

 *   Convert your goals into positive, present tense affirmations (statements.) 

*   Then, each day affirm your goals until they become part of your subconscious  

 Paul J. Meyer talks about there being a “law of attraction” when doing goal setting:   When we set goals and devise plans to achieve them—then become dedicated to the goals attainment—the results become “magnetized.” What others call “luck” or “coincidence” is really just the working of a natural law.  “Focusing on a goal effectively opens one’s eyes to opportunities that others often overlook, it attracts people who can help us, and makes needed resources available.”

I also believe that God puts dreams in our hearts. A dream of the heart placed in the hand of God…….that’s magnetism!

Happy New Year! Happy Goal Setting!    

The Mystery of the Boy Who Saw Too Much by April M. Whitt

The Boy Who Saw Too Much, the first title in April Whitt’s Private Eye Romeo Riley series, will surprise and delight you. Funny, inquisitive, and determined, Romeo Riley is a typical middle schooler in every way but one: Romeo was born with cerebral palsy. Nothing slows Romeo down-not his wheelchair, not his inability to speak, and certainly not other people’s expectations. 

On an ordinary school day, Romeo comes upon a mystery and decides in that moment to become a private eye. We follow as he uses his insight and whatever physical abilities he has to figure out what is going on. Some of the kids in his class are in wheelchairs, some have feeding tubes, and others have learning differences. In April’s able hands, these issues become traits like freckles and left-handedness-it’s just how it is. There are some fantasy elements with wheelchair acrobatics that add to the humor, and will probably appeal to kids.

The Boy Who Saw Too Much can be used to help children with disabilities feel pride in one of their own overcoming obstacles and solving a mystery. It can be help able-bodied children understand that kids are kids no matter how they travel down the school hallway. But best of all, the book is so enjoyable that it can be read for fun and no other reason at all.

You can buy The Boy Who Saw Too Much and other books in the series at www.romeorileytheseries.com

Great comfort food to share with your sweetie on a crisp fall night!

What could be better than a bowl of Italian soup and an old Bela Lugosi movie? That’s scary enough for me! 

 ESCAROLE SOUP (Zuppa Di Scarola)

 1 left over ham bone or fresh ham hock     Ground black pepper

1 pound Italian sausage                               Pinch of red pepper flakes

¼ tsp. oregano                                             Sea salt  

 2 quarts chicken stock                                Fresh basil

4 cloves garlic chopped                               One or two carrots cut in pieces

3 15 oz. cans cannellini beans                     1 yellow onion                                  

2 fresh heads of escarole lettuce                  Freshly grated Romano cheese

 Cook sausage separately, then start a big pot with onion and ham bone with water, chicken stock and cook about 30 mins. on medium heat. Then add carrots, sausage, beans, all other ingredients (except escarole) and simmer for about I 1/2 hours. Just before serving, add escarole (cut or tear into bite-sized pieces, using mainly the green tops) and cook for about five minutes. Sprinkle with Romano cheese.  Serve with crusty whole-grain bread.

“ I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”  Psalm 139:14

 It’s easy to look at someone else’s life and say “boy, I wish I had her life,” or, “why doesn’t God do that for me?” It’s easy to forget that God has a special plan for each of our lives, and it’s not going to look exactly like anybody else’s.

 Lately, I’ve felt like a walking zombie. Or, okay, a smiling walking zombie. If you know my recent history, I’ve just published my first book about Romeo Riley. It’s exciting to say the least, and wonderful to say a little more, but what I didn’t expect are the multitude of emotions, the mixed reactions of others, and the physical and emotional exhaustion.

 At first I was so excited I couldn’t sleep. I’d toss and I’d turn (mostly with a smile on my face) but still, I needed to sleep. And then I began developing an addiction. “Oh, do I have another message? There’s a Facebook, a blog hit, a Twitter?” Wow, then the spam started (now I know what it is) and I’m finding out what a lot of other things are too. The world of technology is an amazing and daunting place. I’ve never considered myself to be very technologically savy, but I am pleased and surprised to find myself cyber connecting more and more as things unfold!

There’s been so much to do! I was already struggling with time management and keeping right priorities. Often I look around my house and want to shut my eyes!

Wonderful friends have given me exciting suggestions on marketing ideas to get Romeo out there. (I plan to act on those ideas too!) but I realized I had to slow down a little. I was hurrying as if time would run out!

I’ve had to remind myself that God holds all of time in His hands. I’ve had to refer back to the sign I’ve kept on my refrigerator “be anxious for nothing.” That little sign helped me through some though times before. It’s looking a little dog-eared now (have I been chewing on it?) Seriously, even good things can make us anxious.

Other unexpected “head trips” have been thoughts that I’m over exposing myself.  And I worry that I’ve intruded upon others like some kind of pushy salesman. Ego-driven emotions rise and fall between pridefulness to total humility. I don’t know when I’ve said “Thank you” quite so much (and I am thankful to be saying it.) But when God moves, the only real place you can be is just in awe.

Also I’ve noticed varied reactions in others. Mostly everyone has been wonderful (thank you from the bottom of my heart for the well wishes and enthusiasm!) but a few have been indifferent. Not that I expect everyone to be a fan of Romeo’s—it’s just one of those things God showed me a long time ago about dark clouds and silver linings. Like the way sad things often have good things that come from them, in the same way a good thing can also include sorrows. The amazing thing is that this journey is still full of twists and bends (even at my age!) And if you’ll trust your life to The Father, you may go places you’ve never even dreamed of.

Been feeling a little inadequate? I think it’s something we never get away from. But we can trust The Lord to make up for our lackings.  Try turning everything over to the One who invented you.  He has exactly the right timing and the perfect blueprint for who you really are. It may not be exactly what you expected, or lead where you expected to go, but who could know better than He who designed you? You are His precious workmanship. You are perfect for His plan!

What is a dream in the making?
What does a hoped-for-vision-you’ve-only- imagined look like when it begins to unfold?

What is a dream come true?
For me, it’s full of surprises. I’ve surprised myself by actually going through with it.
It’s also scary, frustrating, challenging, fool hardy, more difficult than I expected, easier than I expected, and it’s only beginning.

Dreams change when you decide to make them happen. As long as you are only “dreaming’ about it, your dream is safe. It’s like something shiny you keep in a box. You can take out when you want to look at it. You can turn it over in your hand and dream it into whatever you want it to be. It’s forever safe until you unclench your grip on it. Then you risk losing it.

God gives us dreams, but not for us to keep in boxes. Though He often stores them for great lengths of time, when the time is right, He’ll take them off of the shelf and use them.

Take a journey with me.

I’d like to share my experience with you, and hope that you will blog with me and share your experience as well. Join me and our fellow sojourners as we go through this amazing and often difficult experience we call life on this little blue planet. Simple as it seems, it must be very important. So important that the creator of it all left the splendor of heaven to experience it with us, and to give His life for us to make it possible for us to always be with Him.

My family is small. My parents are long gone from this world, and both of my in-laws are elderly and require special care. My husband (of 28 years) and I have two beautiful sons (now both in their 20’s.) I have one brother (who remains a bachelor) and only one brother-in-law and one sister-in-law. I have one precious nephew (who is almost 20!) And I also had a lovely niece (Katelyn Danielle Whitt) whom we lost in 2006 at the young age of 17.

The loss of Katelyn is the most confusing, devastating and inconsolable loss my family has ever known. In this lifetime we’ll never know or understand why The Lord called her home so soon. But we do look forward to meeting her again on the other side. Her family has continued on, but has not forgotten. She has fresh flowers placed regularly at her graveside, and her mom and dad and brother have created an amazing memory garden in her honor at their home as a tribute to her beautiful spirit. We miss you Katelyn Danielle.

Take a journey with me, down a road you can’t see. Open the box and pour your bright droplets into your hand. Are you ready to let them go?

It’s about trusting Him, and it’s a journey we will follow all the days of our lives.

I am the (sometimes unfortunate) owner of two elderly cats: “Giggy” and “Strawberry.” They are mother and daughter and are approximately aged 18 and 18 ½. Nice as they are, they annoy me because they love to come in and out of the house. And since both of them are deaf, they meow VERY loudly when they want to come in. Then shortly after, they meow VERY loudly to announce they want out.

I’m a lot like those crazy cats, I thought to myself one day—or, at least I used to be. I was always anxious for “the next thing.” I would often find myself saying “I’ll be glad when X happens,” or, “I’ll be so glad when we get a new X,” or, “I wish we didn’t have X” or that I didn’t have to “do X.” I didn’t realize how much of my life I lived that way.

But when I came to decide that everything was okay, just the way it is, right now, my perspective began to change. I began to understand that it is only when you can embrace your life (right now) that you can begin to live it. We are only truly alive in this very moment. Let’s take notice of it, and find the peace in it.

This idea is certainly harder for those who are facing troubling circumstances. But even if this moment is a difficult one, try to be present in it. Remind yourself that you only have to live in “this moment.” Try not to digress into thought patterns that heap up more and more troubles. Avoid telling yourself things like “well, probably now X is going to happen, and then that will make this or that happen” and so on. And try not to link your past troubles to your present troubles. Your mountains will only grow higher.

Being gratefully present doesn’t mean we forget about the past or the future either. We should always plan for tomorrow, and take time to reminisce on our past. But let’s give our full awareness to today. I want to notice today’s beauty and be present in my surroundings. I want to be available to love and enjoy the people God puts in my path.

Taking a gratefully present attitude has helped me enjoy the simple things in life. When I focus on the positives—they become too many to count. Sure, the flaws are still there, but they don’t glare at me with the intensity they once did.

Let’s embrace this bountiful moment as we move forward into our day. (Now, if I can just convince my cats!)

“Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matthew 6:34

What “tools” do you use to remain gratefully present?

People with special needs can have a great sense of humor. They enjoy being silly and having a good laugh.  And just like everyone else, they enjoy laughing at themselves. 

I came upon the idea of Romeo one day while at school.  I’d been busy writing goofy emails to the students in the classroom next door to me.  (Their teacher had set up email accounts for each of them and had encouraged staff members to write to them.)

Most of the kids in the class had cerebral palsy (CP), but were able to learn and participate in a variety of learning activities.  They also loved jokes and silly stories—and so, just for fun, I made up a silly story about one of the students and emailed it to her.  Well, when I saw how much she enjoyed her story, I realized I’d better write one for each of the students (so no one would be left out.) I got busy poking fun and harassing the kids (in the same loving manner that we always harassed each of them.)  And as I typed and chuckled and emailed—a light came on inside my head.  Ding!

I began thinking about the serious lack of funny stories available to kids with special needs. The books I’d seen were usually somber in nature, about feelings, and/or acceptance, or were teaching tools. Now all of those books are valuable and have their places—but why wasn’t there anything fun?  Why wasn’t there something on the bookshelf for them or about them—purely for entertainment?

Bang!  Enter Romeo. He’s happy, he’s goofy, he loves life, and he is making a difference in the lives of the people around him.  He’s a lot like the rest of us because he makes mistakes, but his intentions are usually pure and he tries to have the best at heart.  But when he goofs up, you can laugh right along with him—even when he gets himself into a real mess, because he’s going to come out smelling like a rose!

Romeo is named after a former student nick named “Romey.” Romey didn’t talk, but he was the best joke teller I’ve ever met. Romey and the other students I’ve worked with are the true heart behind Romeo Riley.  And if Romeo has enough fans cheering him on—there will be lots more adventures for him to experience in the years to come.

Private Eye, Romeo Riley: The Boy Who Saw Too Much, is his first book.