Thanks to author friend, Beth K. Vogt, for the great opening title phrase she used in her post last Thanksgiving. I’m happy it’s true every day.
Time moves at warp speed lately so our choices need to make every minute count. For me, it’s the first Christmas in thirty years I haven’t managed to write an annual New Year’s letter. My collection reads like a memoir waiting to happen and works great to bank chronological highlights, like stringing individual beads on a beautiful, colorful necklace.
My excuse? January 12 is release date for Books Afloat, my first historical novel available for eBooks on Amazon now and starting the 12th for print copies—a red-letter day for me.
Last semester, I’d signed a contract to teach three online university classes, 63 students, before knowing I would also juggle details for two of my books being published in 2021—nice problem to have. You’ll hear more about my September 7th release later.
Tomorrow, January 8th, would have been Elvis Presley’s 86th birthday as most people throughout his home state of Mississippi and the South remember.
He rose from being the son of a truck driver born in a Sears-Roebuck catalog house. He learned hymns in the Pentecostal church and rhythm and blues from their neighborhood. One Christmas, someone gave him a guitar.
How does a small-town boy handle the big time? Not always well. Talent and fame brought unimaginable success and wealth but placed him in many dangers without guaranteeing happiness.
I haven’t toured Graceland yet. When I took my son and grandson to visit Elvis’s birthplace in Tupelo, they sat on the porch swing where we’re sure he strummed many songs and declared they sang better afterward.
The birthday memory I want to keep of Elvis is of the boy who captured songs with his beautiful voice and put all of his heart and soul into them. I hope he found peace.
Happy Birthday, Elvis. May all of us invest in hope until it expands like a rising fresh-water tide to refresh our lives and nation and world.
What best increases hope for you these days?
Dee: Thank you for reminding us to continue to choose hope. The start of 2021 has been rough, and so many of us pinned our hopes on this new year. For more … for different … for better than 2020. There’s still reason to hope, but the events of recent days begs the question: where does our hope rest? In our circumstances? Those come and go. Here’s to anchoring our hope in the unshakeable Truth that will never fail us.
Truth, and thanks again for letting me use your great quote.