God Will Hold You
I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help [hold] thee.
One day after Hurricane Edna struck western Massachusetts in 1954, my father took me to the Ludlow Bridge which spanned the Chicopee river between Ludlow and Indian Orchard at what was once known as Wallamanumps Falls. We walked onto the bridge and watched the raging water only a few feet below the bridge, splashing against the upstream side. Residents knew that with the dam opened that tumultuous white water was over 50 feet deep. If anyone fell in, they would never survive. I couldn’t see the water because I was only 4 years old and not big enough to look over the concrete siding. So my dad picked me up and sat me on that railing with my feet dangling over the edge. Others around him panicked. At first I was terrified, but my dad held me with a firm grip and told me that I would be OK because he was holding me and would never let me go.
At my advanced age, I still have that mental picture of the raging waters of the Chicopee river directly beneath my feet, and of my father’s strong hands. I can’t help but think that the act of my foster father helping me to see the power of a storm-stirred river developed a deep trust, in my young heart, that my “Dad” was able to hold me and keep me safe. How much stronger and greater the hold of our eternal Father’s hands? He has held me for 42 years now, and has not let go once!
Don’t try to hold God’s hand; let Him hold yours. Let Him do the holding, and you do the trusting.
See Also: Isa. 41:10
NOW on Kindle – High Along the Green Weyes $2.99 for Two Weeks
If you have ever loved and lost, if you enjoy old stone walls, inlets by the sea, beaches, summer warmth, the green of spring in the mountains, the barren beauty of winter, and the vivid colors of fall; if you have–or need–hope for the future, then let this chapbook be your introduction to my early and mid-life poetry. And may it touch something in you along your spiritual journey.
I’ve written these poems over a period from 1966 to 2010.
The Kindle version of High Along the Green Weyes: Selected Early Poems is available at Amazon.com for only $2.99. This promotion of the new chapbook will last until October 5, 2017. Then it will appear at its regular retail price of $9.00.
High Along the Green Weyes contains 25 poems and a brief essay or meditation on the theme of “voice” and inspiration. Hope you enjoy it.
My Newest Book – Almost Finished
I’m in the formatting stage of completing my 5th book. What makes this book stand out from the others is . . . this is my first work of fiction.
I’ve collected and edited 50 decades of selected poems and compiled a chapbook. Do you like the cover?
High Along the Green Weyes: Selected Early Poems will be available first in Kindle and eBook format, followed by the print version several weeks later.
I hope that I may add a new fiction audience to my already faithful non-fiction readers. And once my book of poems is launched, I can get to work on finishing the two novels I have in the works. Very exciting for me to launch out in fiction.
I hope you will share this post with friends and family and help me spread the word. I’ll keep you informed.
If you would like to be placed on my Personal Newsletter list, please sign up on the right in the navigation column. The newsletter, when I begin it, will be quarterly. And short!! LOL.
Here’s one of the poems:
Okemo
A light breeze, sweet with morning,
flapped my curtain, stirred the long
blinds to softly clatter, welcoming day.
–a mountain-flyer morning.
High over valleys watching, with hawks–
Okemo–scarred with jagged trails, bare, green grassed,
empty lines and lifts and ledges,
beside condominiums–gleaming rows of white teeth
smiling in the sun–
long after Abenaki moved north.
Okemo–sore with skiers and trails, waits
through seasons for her trees to return
as the wheel comes round again,
as it always comes round . . . again–
around To her, alone in wind,
with hawks.
Memoir vs Autobiography
I recently wrote a memoir. A family member asked me, “Why wasn’t so-and-so mentioned in your book?”
“I didn’t include many special people, interesting places, and events of my life in the work, mainly because I wrote a memoir, not an autobiography.” I said.
“What’s the difference? I’m not sure I know. Isn’t a memoir supposed to be about all that you remember in your life?” he said.
That’s when I gave a brief comparison as I understood the differences.
“To me, a memoir presents slices of memory around a theme. The theme I chose was my adoption and healing love. The memoir began simply as a journaling of the various encounters I had as an adoptee with the love that finally healed my life and my wounded heart. Much of what I wrote when I started out was for my own personal reflection and not intended for publication. Only later did I see the theme emerge.
An autobiography, on the other hand, is a full, comprehensive accounting of everything in the life of the person writing. The autobiography organizes itself chronologically. The memoir or personal narrative, may meander through various memories and snatches of experiences surrounding the developing theme. Is that explanation helpful?”
“I think you should share that in an Introduction or Preface then.” he said.
“Perhaps a blog post will do. On behalf of my readers, I was trying to be brief and focused.” My family member seemed satisfied.
This is the simplified explanation of how I envisioned and wrote my recent book entitled, Adopted: An Adoptee’s Memoir of Healing Love. I hope I clarified the distinction enough to not be held guilty of leaving out him and others I love and value.
QUESTION: Is the explanation I gave clear and accurate as you think about the differences?
Adopted Memoir Available for Kindle
“I thought I’d be dead by 21”
Great pain produces character. It can just as easily produce fear, rejection, and self-loathing.
My early life produced in me a fear that I’d be dead by 21. This personal narrative is my memory of a lifelong search for love, belonging, and a sense of place. Walk with me on my journey through abandonment, panic attacks, fear, rejection, bullying, and unbelief, out into the blinding light of healing love.
Adopted touches on the issues nearly every child or adult adoptee must face on the way to maturity, wholeness, and redemption. Along the way it provides valuable insights to adoptive and foster parents who long to see their children whole; and, to adult adoptees who wonder why they do what they do and how healing can be the next chapter in their life story.
See product page at Amazon.com
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