An Unnecessary Ramble Concerning Life...

Here I sit in the midst of a blank spot in one of my "writing vortexes", since genius, while it burned with a fervor last night, is sort of cold ashes at the moment. The writing vortex cannot be over yet, I refuse to believe it is. But whilst my muse searches desperately for matches to rekindle the fire, I feel the need to say something... anything. I s'pose I should be working on one of the tags wherewith I have been tagged... but I haven't the strength for that just now... XD

I finally returned from my rather prolonged absence to find an extremely empty classroom waiting to be filled and arranged, a stack of teacher's editions of third grade textbooks nearly half a mile high, and simply pages upon pages of lesson plans to be written. Also I am still in the throes of Les Mis fervor, and I'm trying to recover from the effects of the "LOTS going on" that I mentioned in my last post, rather cryptically.

Can I just ask for prayers? I know this is supposed to be a book blog and all that, and it isn't like a personal email or anything, but as I have not risen to blogging fame and this little corner o' mine is known only to kindred spirits, I feel justified in asking. 

First of all, one of my dearest friends lost her dad last month. Exactly one week before her birthday too. Which is partly why I vanished so completely, because as soon as I found out, I dropped everything (literally, I'm not kidding), jammed a few things rather recklessly into a duffel bag and set out on a fourteen-hour drive cross-country. I was gone for ten days, and it was insane... I've never been behind the scenes of a funeral like that before. I cleaned and organized and cooked and baked and set up meal groups and contacted people and set events in motion while the family had meetings with funeral directors and private viewings and chose a coffin and a hundred other dreadful things. (Why DO they make the family do so many awful things when they're in the first stages of heart-wrenching grief...??!) I never was very tactful in such situations, and I've tried my best, but it's so hard to know what to do... And it was so unexpected. Her dad was only in his early forties... and a pastor in our church, a very kind and compassionate man who knew how to lead a church with wisdom and understanding, and it has hurt the entire church to lose him... Please, please, please do pray for my friend! She's hurting so much...

To top it all off, I got sick on the way home, and it was a hundred times worse than any sick I ever was before... and while still sick, that was when the almost-three-week vacation happened, so you see why I've been so scarce... XD Life is just... insane sometimes.

But the thing about life is that in the midst of dark times, good things can still happen. And one of the biggest prayers of my life was answered on that funeral week, when someone I've been praying for for years (who incidentally happens to be a major inspiration behind one of my main Seasons characters) became a Christian. Tears of sorrow and of joy really can go together... and please do pray for him too... there are church issues and everything gets so confusing... I don't even know how to explain. The fact remains that prayer is needed (that God's will be done and that we all have the wisdom and strength to cope in difficult times), and I am grateful for those who pray.

That being said, my life is still no closer to being straightened out than ever before... and I continue to spin wildly in circles in the midst of the mess, trying to sort out which parts I directly brought upon myself just by being the reckless, foolhardy, impulsive sort of creature that I am (Very Jo March here, that's what I am), and which parts are beyond my control...

"Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

So there, I suppose I'll stop complaining now... XD and apologize for having burdened you with this monster of a ramble... there certainly is no reason to pour out heart and soul, Julie Dee!! *gives herself a good, hard shake*

Anyway. Updates. I promise you, my poor longsuffering readers, that I have not forgotten either you or my stories. I shall be transferring the rest of the Seasons book chapters to this blog within the next few weeks and then return to writing A Time of Peace. If all goes well, I hope to finish that by the end of summer/beginning of fall, and then begin on the sequel to THAT one, if you're not all completely worn out with my poor characters by now XD. Also I shall be posting the aforementioned Les Mis fanfic soon, and then I have to finish the Adventures in Odyssey fanfic, and any other random scribbles that crop up between now and then.

If you have actually read all of that, then I doff my cap to you and offer you my sincerest adoration and gratitude. This blog will shape up soon, I promise! There is yet light at the end of the tunnel, and there will be a real schedule as soon as school starts... and I say thank God for school, it'll help in a thousand ways, and maybe finally get my poor weary mind off of all the Other Things...

Apologetically,

JulieDee