Writing Stories, Living Life, Writing Blogs by Sandra Rafuse

 

Photo by Sandra Rafuse

September's Prompt

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

It is a wonderful promise of God that each day is a new beginning to experience his faithfulness. As autumn activities start afresh in churches and schools, September can be a time to reflect on how the previous months have gone and to set new intentions for the months ahead. How has your writing life progressed thus far in 2025? Are you encouraged to move ahead?


The first week of September is over. Our church will be wrapping up its summer season at the park in one more week. Then the water will be shut off to all the park facilities (the water in the pool will be just drained enough so the water is below the intake lines; the rest is left over in the winter months), and our church services will be held back at the town hall for the rest of the fall and winter months up to the May long weekend in 2026.

The new school term began two weeks ago for the teachers and one week ago for the students. My husband, Bob, and I, have been taking care of the flowers in the flower containers in the schoolyard since the end of July and we will continue to do so as long as the weather stays warm. Then the outside water tap will be shut off and our deadheading and watering of the flowers will end. And the crab apple tree, which was planted in the school yard several years ago in memory of a former student of ours, remains bent over with hundreds of now overripe crab apples that will drop to the ground when they are ready.

Writing Stories

I'm remembering writing one of my final English exams, sitting at a desk in the high school gym one June many years ago. English was one of my favourite subjects and I was good at it. I recall that I was answering a question that required me to write a short story and I was trying to make it humorous. I figured I was being successful because I was starting to get the giggles as I wrote. I thought to myself, "Oh, this is going to be so good!" Soon my shoulders were starting to shake and I had to cover my mouth with one of my hands to stifle the sounds of laughter that were building up inside of me. Of course I was attracting some attention from the other students around me and soon one of the supervising teachers came over to see what was up. He was my Social Studies teacher. He looked over my writing; then he indicated, with a finger to his lips, that I had better be quiet as I wrote. I got a good mark on that final exam and I believe it was because of that humorous, fun-to-write story.

Making up and completing writing assignments in classes usually came easily to me. In high school or at university, they weren't a problem. In fact, the only problem I had with them was forever procrastinating over the assignments before getting them started. And then, when the pressure was on, I wrote down some of the best writing I'd ever done!

Living Life

When I finished university and received my Bachelor of Education degree, I immediately entered the world of teaching. Writing, either for pleasure, or to try to make a living at, or for any other reason, never had a place in my mind. The skills I had developed and used faded out of my life. I was busy, busy, busy; living my life doing so many other things. But all the things that unfolded before me, all the people who entered my life and stayed and all those who entered my life and left, were important. I didn't write but I remembered and all those memories are my stories now.

How has my writing progressed in 2025?

When I joined Inscribe Writers Online I was excited to have the opportunity to write for the first time in many years. I wanted to try this. I needed to do this. And I feel the writing has gone well My first blog was published in March and I have been able to meet my deadlines every month since then. There were a few times when I looked at the month's prompt and I wondered what on earth was I ever going to write about that? But I knew I could ask God for help and he would give me the ideas I needed. The thoughts would come into my mind and get me started and I was mostly able to carry on from there to get the blog written. Admittedly, much rewriting, and changing of words and sentences, and endless editing went on the whole time. Not to mention looking up the grammar rules I used to know and even checking out spelling rules that were once easy to remember. And last, but certainly not least, the comments were so helpful and encouraging to me. I enjoy reading the comments for all the bloggers. The sharing of them is just wonderful.

Am I encouraged to move ahead?

I am. I have started to make a list of topics that I would like to write about in the near future. It's a short list but I expect it will grow longer. And the other day, three titles came to my mind so I started a new list for them. They are book titles. Children's book titles perhaps. I'm not sure yet. I know I want to work on my daily writing. I had planned to try recording the 3-4 sentences daily that were suggested by Steph Beth Nickel but I haven't been able to make that happen. However, I refuse to be discouraged. I have no doubt in my mind that as soon as I buy the fountain pen in the picture at the top of Steph's blog the creative juices will start to flow and I will quickly jump from the amateur writer that I am to a slightly more professional one.

Sandra Rafuse lives in the small town of Rockglen, SK with her husband Bob, a Gordon Setter named Sadie, an elderly and much loved cat named Kitty, and a Peregrine falcon named Peet. She is a retired teacher and an amateur writer and is enjoying having the opportunity to share what God has been teaching her through her life experiences.

" This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him" 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV)