WHERE GOOD WORDS ORIGINATE—

I know, you wonder why this southern girl loves the City. Of course, we don't have cities like this in the South. Mind you, I wouldn't live here if you gave me one of these brownstones. Well, maybe. I do love New York. But that's not what I'm going to write about tonight. I was hoping this background might inspire me.

I needed to come here to my special place and see what emerges from these fingers and my brain, better known as my heart since that's really where good words originate. I've been working on something technical for the past two weeks, something that has taxed me—mind, body, soul and spirit. I will never commit to something like that again. Those days are gone. Over! I cannot think along those lines. I would rather be writing than eating, but creative, not industrial. It's really hard for me to say "no" and I will accommodate any and everybody. Well, no more! My heart must be in it. Now, if my friends will just bind me to it. I promise not to rebel when I am held accountable.

You know what I've been doing in my real spare moments, not that I have any. I've been co-publishing with Dale Caperell, while I'm waiting for my soccer coach (memoir) to come back from Africa and my reverend (memoir) to get his manuscript read by the former mayor of Birmingham, for those two manuscripts are finished. Yay! My poor Isaac's House is a-mouldering on the shelf, and  I do so love that book. I'll get it published one day, even if I have to Pub-It to Nook. It will be much less expensive for my friends who have taken the plunge to Kindle and Nook as an alternative to holding a precious hard copy close to the heart. I mean, really! Nothing will ever take the place of real page-turning for me. I'm still going to be old-fashioned till the day I die. I know, I know. I don't need to remind you of that.

So . . . back to Dale. We finished another picture book last week. Book #2  is ready and you can have fun by going to blurb.com and looking for Reflections of the Past by Dale Caperell and Jane Bennett Gaddy. Or click on the URL below. These coffee table books really are quite lovely. They come in hard cover, hard cover with dust jacket, or paperback. For coffee table, it's hard cover all the way!





Dale is such a grand photographer. He and Michele just came from a trip down below us to some little towns called Long Boat Key, Ft. Myers, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. I won't say that they stopped off on Sanibel, for it was a total bomb. Nothing like it used to be. But Dale got some good photos in the other places, I just know it. Can't wait to see them. When I asked him what we're doing next, he frowns a little and I can see the wheels go 'round. I would kinda like it to be photos of Pittsburgh. His city. For it is a beautiful city and he captured that beauty from atop Mt. Washington and really all over the place, for he lived there for many years. His night photos of this glass-walled city are fascinating. Makes you want to go there.

Well, that's enough for tonight. I must go and try for a little sleepy so I can get up early in the morning, hoping to start my day with some rain again. We finally got a few drops this morning. The Sunshine State needs lots of rain. I hope you stayed with the ramble tonight. I'll do better next time.

Speaking of Where Good Words Originate, I'll leave you with a Scripture. So much is said about the heart. Jeremiah in 17:9 told us that it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. God said it. And in verse 10, he said, I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins . . . Remember that, for it will come back to teach you over and over again on this journey called life.

But in Jeremiah 24:7, we get a better opportunity when God said, I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. Now, that's where you want to get (24/7 you want to be anchored right here). So close to the Lord that he gives you that heart to know him. What did the Apostle say in Philippians 3:10? That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death.  Now, you can't get any closer than that!




Jane BG at Home
Author of The Mississippi Boys
http://www.amazon.com/Mississippi-Boys-Novel-Civil-War/dp/0595527922/ 
available at online bookstores the world over

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