Category Archives: Friends & Family
Serendipity: a happy accident or pleasant surprise. Our lives are full of accidents and surprises. Being able to see the happy and find the pleasant in them– that’s the hat trick. More than a decade ago, after filling away yet another rejection letter, I squared my shoulders and took another path. I spent the next several years working feverishly to build a platform for my writing. Progress was painfully slow. Little by little I obligated myself here and committed myself there until one day I found myself back into the proverbial corner. I’d worked myself into a position where I had to create content week in and week out for my website and radio affiliates. All Things Southern became a burden. I began chaffing at the demands of my own creation. She was requiring too much effort, too many words. I felt sure I was spinning my wheels. I longed to lay it down and write the books I felt sure she was preventing me from writing. Despite having felt that ATS was my mission field from the onset, that I was meant to lighten loads and ease burdens with weekly stories and chuckles wrapped around little nuggets of devotional thoughts, I began negotiatingwith God. I’ll lay this all down, I told Him repeatedly, if He would just give me the okay. He wouldn’t. I’m sorry. I don’t know how else to say that. But I’ll do ladies’ seminars and concentrate on teaching the Word, I told Him. You know how I love that! All I got from heaven was a big fat no. In the middle of that season IT finally happened. I became a published author. After having self-published my first three books, I now found myself with a for real agent and a contract with a for real publishing house. Booksellers and readers embraced Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On, (and I’m eternally grateful), allowing me the privilege of working on a follow-up, Sue Ellen’s Girl Ain’t Fat, She Just Weighs Heavy. Still, I persisted in kicking against the weekly deadlines. I continued dreaming of the “other things” I wanted to write that All Things Southern was keeping me from writing. One day I’ll tell you the story of how I came to lay my want-to down. God and I didn’t “strike a deal.” I yielded. I decided to want what He wanted before I wanted it. And then I asked Him to make it so, to move my heart by what moved His. Ever so slowly I began to value the weight of All Things Southern that was always forcing me to cry out to Him. And strangely, that led me to gratitude for the very demands I’d been resenting. Talk about your pleasant surprises! Oh, and those words I had been hammering out week after week? With my new perspective I began to see how they had become the bones of those first two Penguin releases. That whole time in the trenches–…
The other day my author friend prefaced what she was about to say to me by telling me it would make me laugh. Duly warned, I was prepared for a chuckle but her next comment gave me the kind of belly laugh that I dearly love. Author Friend said I was “the sanest person she knew.” If you are a friend, family member, or long-time reader you will need a moment to compose yourself. You might also be briefly preoccupied with concern over said author’s inner circle, but I’m going to move on. Catch up when you can, ’k? So, here’s the context for that little funny. I am turning FIFTY today and I’m stinking excited about it! I don’t know this for sure but I’m thinking my level of enthusiasm for this milestone birthday could be rare and some might even think a tad cray. (I understand the cool kids say cray instead of crazy but I just typed it and my spell check isn’t at all pleased. My spell check is apparently a dinosaur.) I was already looking forward to turning fifty when that same author friend emailed me with a story that sent my enthusiasm off the charts. She had told her preteen daughter that I was turning 50 and her baby girl said, “She should have a Jubilee!” The young girl went on to explain to her mother that it was one of her vocabulary words and it meant a celebration. Well now, after reading that email– and seeing the Scripture links my friend included where Jubilee is mentioned in the Word, I went on my own Scriptural treasure hunt and came out plum slap happy! As I type these words, I’m bursting with excitement about what I believe the Lord is showing me about this upcoming year. I share them with y’all, my lovely readers, to invite you to come with me and share the journey. I intend to write to you more about Jubilee in the coming year. What I want to share with you right now will be a very simplistic explanation of the Biblical Jubilee. First mentioned in the Old Testament, the year of Jubilee was a once every 50 year celebration. It was a time of freedom, joy, and festivity ordained by God Himself when offenses were forgiven, debts were cancelled, and slaves were set free. That’s good, but it only got better. Centuries later, Messiah would open the scroll to Isaiah and read these words aloud to those listening in the temple, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because He hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” According to the translation, that last line in your Bible might read “to proclaim the favorable of the Lord”, or “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Regardless of how it is translated, however, it is widely accepted that Jesus was proclaiming Jubilee! Oh, but friends, lean in a tad closer and hear Him announcing what I would call Jubilee on…
The man is zeroed in on the Masters. I can see his blond head from here. I’m back porch writing in my new Swingasan. (LOVE this thing!) Just a little while ago Papa and Mama came by for a quick cup of coffee. While they were here our conversation turned to Mama’s parents, my beloved grandparents and their camp on the Old River. It didn’t take us long to stack up a ton of stories from those years, almost all of them revolving around Papaw’s shenanigans. Stick around. I’ll tell you more of those as time goes by. I suppose all that storytelling primed me but no sooner had they left and I’d settled back into my writing spot when a smell drifted up from the lake bank and took me away. I’m a little girl again at Papaw’s camp, sunburned and satisfied with a bellyful of fried catfish fresh from the River. My middle sister and I are snuggled three deep in a tiny bed at the back of the camp along with our favorite cousin, Lisa. Papaw’s camp is a hodgepodge of add-on spaces tacked around an original trailer and we’re bedded down in a far corner. I remember white all around me, the sheets, the walls, the ceilings. It feels like we’ve been tucked in the bottom of an old comfy sock. We’re supposed to be sleeping but it’s summer time and we’re at the camp and our parents are up late laughing and talking, telling their own stories and making new ones. Bed times have relaxed along with everything else. By the time I come back to this porch the memories have had their way. I am decidedly mellow and that much more eager to get back to the manuscript at hand. I hope you read it one day and on that day, I hope it takes you to a similar place of peace, comfort, and love. Happy Sunday to you all. Hugs, Shellie
Wednesdays are bellerina days here at All Things Southern. The little belles and I get to play while their mother works and we all look forward to it. Right now, however, I’m under a little pressure to get the edits turned back into my editor for my latest manuscript. And that’s why, when my BFF offered to help tag-team babysit today to give me some extra hours at the laptop, I knew I needed to be a big girl and take her up on it. That’s the sort of thing forever friends will do for you. I’m reminded of the old quote, “New friends are silver, old friends are gold!” The deal was that I would have them in the morning, we would all grab lunch at Jehovah Java, and then Rhonda (you may have heard me call her “G” or “Red”) would take them for the afternoon. The bellerinas were excited about going to G’s, but they were still curious about the developments. “What are you doing after lunch, Keggie?” Emerson asked. I knew the girls had heard about my work but it occurred to me that I’d never really talked to them about what I do and they were getting old enough to understand more. So, I pulled a couple of my books out, set them down, and reminded them about how Keggie writes books, like the ones I read to them, but for big people. We traced my name on the front with their fingers as I read it aloud to them. When I told them that Keggie was going to be working on the next book after lunch, they really seemed to get it, especially Emerson the big sister. Carlisle just grinned and giggled. Of course, when I suggested we take pictures with the books, they were both all in. The resulting image make me smile every single time I look at it so naturally, I had to share. I hope you’ll enjoy it, too! Click to tweet
