Oops, It's Okay - Susan Barclay

If you're like me, you've probably made more than a few embarrassing mistakes in your lifetime. But have you ever made the same mistake twice, in reverse?

Travel back in time with me to 2009, the year my short story, A Bonny Blue Christmas, is published. I think it's for a Christmas romance anthology, but just a couple of days before it's to go to print I discover it's actually for a Christian Christmas romance anthology. Oops! Although my story doesn't contain anything I'd be ashamed of - I write for the gentle reader, after all - it doesn't contain anything overtly Christian either. Hold the presses!! I contact the editor, admit my faux pas, and ask if I can make adjustments. She agrees, and all is fixed. The story could be more Christian, given more time, but at least now there's something.

Fast forward to 2012. Another Christmas short story is to be published in another anthology. This time I think it's for a Christian anthology, but as I skim some of the other stories in the book before it goes to print, I realize that it's not. Oh, no! I contact the editor - the same one as the last time, no less - and offer to retract my story. She can use it another time. No, she assures me, she wants to use it now. And she wants my story to conclude the book, to leave readers thinking on spiritual things. I think that is totally awesome!

I've been fortunate enough to catch my errors in the nick of time, but you can bet I will be more clear of expectations in future! Some gentle advice for you, too, dear writer :).  My mistakes have turned out okay, but you can save yourself a lot of anxiety by writing right in the first place!

I invite you to visit me at my website and my blog Notes From Innisfree. Also, leave a comment on my January 19 post  by January 31  (tomorrow!) for your chance to win one of my anthologies!


 

Bad Recipes by Brenda J Wood

My friend decided to stop baking and gave me all her recipes. Whew! What a stack.I thought all of them would be great because after, all she had them in her possession.

Sadly this was not the case. No matter what I did to tofu, my hubby would not believe it was hamburger. (Please don't send me your favourite version...it won't wash here!)

The Rocky Road bars really were rocky while the Spinach rolls were for admiration only.

Finally I figured out her system. A barely legible recipe, with sticky edges and brown blobs met "Try me. I taste good." In a very short time, I edited that recipe pile down to a few special ones and tossed the rest.

Her most spotted recipe?

Cherry Snacks

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

Crumble these ingredients together and pat into bottom of 9" square pan. Bake at 350F for 8 minutes, then mix the following ingredients and spread on the top.

2 well-beaten eggs

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup walnuts

1/2 pound candied cherries

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup finely shredded coconut

Return to oven and bake at 325 for 45 minutes. Top with butter icing if desired.

Just like recipes, life gives us lots of opportunities. Some are worth trying at least once but too many are not worth even one experience. Only a few are really worth the money, time and effort they demand.

We've all chased a few bad recipes. Some should have been thrown out immediately because we saw others make the same mistake.

Still some of us must try.... Lesson learned the first time should be enough.

Made a mistake and tried it? Too bad. Lesson learned.

Repeated the same mistake again---and again---and again...?

Shame on us.

Brenda J Wood

http://heartfeltdevotionals.wordpress.com

My National Park Legacy

I don’t know about the rest of you, but do you ever get down on yourself? I do. I’m sure we all have our reasons for dragging our chin.

Too often I make blunders, innocent mistakes perhaps, but I say things without realizing how un-tactful they are, only to realize later, much too late, the potency of their poison.

And then I check myself into solitary confinement and beat myself up. Can anybody else relate?

God’s been speaking to me about this. I laughed when I opened God’s word today. Here’s what He had to say today: “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him” (Mark 1:1b).

Ha ha. Wow. I’ve left more of a broken trail than a straight path. My words have hiccuped out like volcanic lava and have hardened into boulders. So much for a paved highway for the Lord to take. Instead, He had to negotiate a wounded landscape before he arrived in the dark, sunless valley of my soul. He rescued me and brought me out into the light.

But others are still coming after me and I’m leaving a crooked route for them. I worry about how I’ve hurt them, and how they need healing. The Lord has reminded me, though, that straight lanes are boring.

Think about those mountain top lakes. The only way in is on foot. There are no paved roads. Hikers must clamber over boulders left from landslides, or cross gaping cracks in glaciers. They encounter mud and slide around, or land on cactus and find themselves bleeding, but still, the only way to the top is through a catastrophe zone.

So I have to live and let it happen. Some days I’m a walking disaster and that’s all I can muster. But I’m trusting that God will take the tsunami of my bloopers and create a National Park. Others will come behind, trip on my words and tumble into the crevasses of my botch-ups. I hope they don’t turn around. If they keep searching for wholeness, they’ll find it at the end of my broken trail.

Someday they’ll stand with me on the outlook point and together we’ll drink in the magnificent colors of God’s grace.

Pam Mytroen