A calm, quiet heroine is a challenge to write

I'm at Long and Short Reviews today, talking about the heroine of TIES THAT BIND, Tess, Lady of Bridswell. While Aedan is wild and reckless, she is centered and thoughtful, and somehow able to calm his restless. Come meet her.
Keena TIES THAT BIND--from The Wild Rose Press http://keenakincaid.com

It's time to hit the reset button

A friend celebrated a milestone birthday yesterday, and as her "gift" she asked everyone to a lesson learned (or "what I know" to quote Oprah) and a resolution moving forward. 

What I know is we all need a reset button.

Like a computer, there are times when we become overwhelmed by demands on our time, health and wallet, by attempts to multitask, by disappointment, loss and heartbreak, by life. We freeze up. We stop working, and worries just spin through our heads like a Mac's color wheel when the computer stalls out.

A restart fixes the Mac. It's not so simple for us, but in these moments, we too need a reset button--a touchstone that reminds of us a basic, incontrovertible fact that helps us find perspective.

For me, the reset button is the Scarborough epiphany.

Several years ago, while standing amid castle ruins worrying about being 40, single, broke and unemployed, I had an amazing, unexpected moment of insight. The early Saints--God-touched and made mad by it--would have called it an epiphany. It was nothing earth-shattering, just one of those moments when head knowledge becomes heart knowledge.

I, like most people, want assurances that everything will be all right. We strive for security in work, in money, in relationship, but there is no such thing. It all comes with risk.

This thought rolled through my mind as I looked around the promontory defended and lost by neolithic peoples, Romans, Saxons, Vikings and Normans. No matter how secure their defenses, they eventually fell. And no matter how hard we try, we will, too.

The epiphany was:  Life IS the blessing; everything else is the cherry on top. And my attitude is a matter of faith. I either believe life without a safety net is an adventure for the soul or I live in the smallness of fear and worry all my days.

I'm glad my friend's request reminded me of my reset button. I've been letting worries get to me--and that is no way to live. So... excuse me while I restart.

The accidental Christmas

On Sunday, I dug out my Christmas boxes to find my wreath. Door decoration is a competitive sport among my neighbors, and I fall way short of the mark most of the year. This season I wanted to try and meet minimal standards.

But I didn't stop at the door.

No, after I hung the wreath, I decided a bowl of ornaments on the table would look festive. Then I set out the mitten cookie jar, which meant I had to bake cookies to put in it. Then the ceramic medieval Santa. Then the Nativity (and somewhere my old Sunday school teacher is wincing at the order). Then the...well, you get the idea.

Days later my place is festooned for the holidays, a brand-new tree lights up my window, and most of the ingredients for Bohemian tea--a traditional winter drink in my family--clutter the kitchen counter (I need to buy oranges). But I can no longer go into my office because the unchosen decorations wait in ambush from their tissue-paper nests, determined to join the fun.

So now I'm staring at a huge ornament that I hung over the mantle when I lived in Charlotte and wondering if it's gauche to decorate the bathroom. Is it?