THANKFUL :: My Best Good Friend, Cerella Sechrist
originally posted on November 25, 2009
 
I often speak of my best good friend (a term I stole from Forrest Gump) and how we’re essentially just new-style pen pals, but many people have difficulty understanding how a friendship can grow so strong when only emails are shared. But it is precisely that love of the written word that brought us together in the first place and has continued to be the foundation upon which our friendship is built. Though Cerella and I have never met in person during our 13-year history, our bond has grown continually stronger in every aspect of relationship. We’ve become sisters after all these years, and it’s precisely because of that faithful email correspondence.

In 1999, when the internet was just making its way into the home of the average person, I took a stab at writing fan fiction for a now-defunct television series called The Magnificent Seven. Cerella read a single story and declared herself my biggest fan. This was my first foray into online communities, my first experience “meeting” people via the internet, and the first time I’d shared any of my writings in public. I wasn’t even using my real name anywhere yet. [Remember how scary it all seemed back then?] But Cerella was honest and encouraging in her love for my writing and the characters I was adding to existing Mag7 canon, and we quickly began corresponding regularly. I learned that she, too, had writing aspirations, so many of our conversations centered around this topic. There were no boundaries in our communication, no generation gaps or personal issues related to our 10-year age difference. We simply shared our hearts and our thoughts and found common interests in books and movies and celebrity crushes. That was the foundation, but it quickly became only a starting point for something far greater.

During the following decade, Cerella and I would reconnect from time to time and catch up on the past weeks or months that had kept us too busy to correspond regularly. Each time it seemed as if no time had passed at all. My experience is that this is a sign of enduring friendship, and the years have proven that to be true. In recent years we’ve kept in constant communication, using email and texts and packages through the postal service, and we’re still each other’s biggest fans despite not yet having met in person, even now. That detail has no effect on our bond. We are sisters in Christ, encouragers of each other’s dreams, and sounding boards for life’s messy details. I have no other friendship that goes so deep or maintains such honesty. I’m sure there would be little personality quirks between us that would certainly put a new dimension on our relationship if we saw each other regularly, but I’m inclined to believe that such things would be of no consequence in the long run. As I’m fond of saying, we know each other’s hearts, and that transcends even the greatest of differences. We both look forward to the day when we can finally sit down and share a meal at the same table and talk long into the night. As all lifelong friends do.

I celebrate Cerella’s friendship every day, but there is one very specific way that is more fun than the rest: the joy of her first published novel, Love Finds You In Hershey, Pennsylvania. Check out this sweet, fun story for yourself and follow Cerella for news of future projects. Join me in celebrating my best good friend!

LESSONS I LEARNED FROM MY DAD
originally posted on Father’s Day 2010
 
NEVER GIVE UP ON PEOPLE — I learned this lesson by example. My dad forgives, again and again and again. He never stops giving second chances, least of all to his family. And he’s been tested, thoroughly, by all of us, many times over and often through the same mistakes. But he never gives up on any of us. Thank God, he never gives up on us. My dad has never forgotten what it feels like to be forgiven, and he is quick to offer that to everyone else. In this way, he models our heavenly Father, making it very easy for me to believe in a loving, gracious God. I will never be able to thank him enough for that.
 
MARRIAGE IS FOR LIFE — and your word is your bond. If you commit, you don’t break that vow. I can remember a time when my parents struggled in their early married life, and many years later I witnessed them both verbally commit to never divorce and to always work through whatever challenges came along. Since that day, I’ve watched their love grow and their relationship flourish. I continually see them trudge through pain and anger and fear until they can finally make each other laugh again, and I know their example is rare and powerful. I understand the truth of enduring love because of my parents, and I understand how a woman should be treated because my dad has modeled it with my mom (and with his daughters). It’s a high standard of excellence, to be sure, and I refuse to lower my own standards because I know what I would be missing.
 
YOU’RE NEVER TOO BUSY — for family, for friends, for people in need. You might have other plans or ideas about what you want to accomplish, but God is in charge of all your time and when He creates an appointment for you, nothing else is more important. This is especially true for grandchildren and daughters who can probably handle things themselves but really want Daddy to do it instead. It’s far too easy for us to take advantage of our dad because he’s so willing to rearrange his agenda to accommodate almost any request. I wonder if being always available also makes him feel valued and irreplaceable? He is, of course. In every way.
 
THE LOVE OF JESUS IS OVERWHELMING — My dad has a soft heart, but he’s not necessarily prone to tears. Except when he speaks of relationship with the Christ. When my dad considers the sacrifice of our Lord and the depth of His love and grace, he can barely speak about it. The words always catch in his throat. His eyes fill with tears, and his heart swells. He frequently has to stop and take a deep breath before he can speak again. It was this way when he first began his relationship with Jesus, and it is exactly the same (perhaps moreso) 25 years later. Nothing affects my dad in quite the same way, not even his family. And at the same time, my dad bursts with true joy when describing that intimate relationship with our Savior. Nothing in life brings him more delight. Which is why I know that…
 
THE GREATEST CHARACTER TRAIT IS A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR — My life story is full of ridiculous and hilarious episodes, and many of those are directly tied to my family. My dad has always modeled a joyful life. He finds humor in everything. And he is quick to laugh! He and I share a quirky sense of humor, and he has a subtle, dry wit that perplexes those who don’t spend much time with our family. He’s really good at analyzing every situation until he can find something to laugh at, and even when things are the worst you could imagine and keep going downhill, my dad will always find some small goodness in the midst of it. He has a wonderful way of finding humor in the dark and difficult. Because of this example I’ve learned to laugh instead of cry – or at least to laugh in the midst of crying – and I’m always reminded of my dad saying, “Yes, it’s awful, but that’s the darlin’ part!” And after a time I can see that he’s right.
 
My dad, himself, is the darlin’ part of our family. He shows us how to love and how to live life fully, without regret and without turning around to focus on the past. He leads by example, and we have learned to follow. I am truly thankful every moment of every day for God’s great gift to us in my dad.
 

originally posted on Mother’s Day 2010
 
The best advice I ever received came from my mother during an especially challenging and personally unsatisfying period in which an employer was a source of constant grief:
 

Everything you’re
 

going through
 

is building
 

character
 

in you.
 

It was a light bulb moment for an almost-thirty-year-old who had only recently returned to her faith and was desiring excellence and a deeper relationship with Jesus. I think this may have also been the exact moment I realized the excellence of my mother, how she had always been good and strong and wise despite my inability to recognize it. Even then, it would still be many years before I understood the depth of my mother’s love and the sacrifices she makes for her family… and for me, especially. But we’ve been building a friendship ever since, and I’ve never forgotten her sage words on that day. Whenever I experience something particularly challenging or stressful, and especially when I cannot understand the why of a situation or a person’s behavior, I remember those words from my mother. Every moment in life is building character in me.
 

originally posted April 29, 2011 in response to Five Minute Friday
 
The answer is always the same. If I knew I could, I would… live a nomadic life. The journey always begins in Pennsylvania, where I would spend a week visiting my best good friend, letting her show me around her homeland, and then I would help her pack and take her along for the rest of the journey. We’d hop the pond to London first, then take in the majestic cliffs of Ireland and rolling hills of Scotland, then zip over to Paris for a long leisurely adventure. After that, Spain, Italy, Greece… Eastern Europe, the Holy Lands, Russia, China, Japan… and everywhere in between. A lengthy tour of Africa would follow, and then a long (long, long) holiday in Australia, the land of my lifelong dreams. We’d eventually meander back to Hawaii and Alaska, and take a casual tour of North America on one enormous road trip. Eventually we’d make it down to South America, as well, after which we’d begin the journey all over again. Just two single gals on an epic adventure, pens and journals in hand, cameras at the ready, to capture every impression of all that we encounter.

I would if I could. Oh, yes, I most certainly would.

originally posted March 23, 2009
 
When we can trust the love we have – when we know, not just believe, that we have enough love – we are free to write honestly, even knowing that the more honestly we share, express and expose ourselves, the easier we are making it for some people to not like us. This does not mean rejection or criticism will be easy, but it means we always have the safety net of genuine love and support to fall back on. With this safety net, we are able to write as honestly as possible, and it is this kind of honesty that makes for the very best writing. – Blue Poppy via Christine Mason Miller

These words appeal to my own beliefs about writing. My writing (and later, my blogs) has always been a personal expression of myself, my interests, my beliefs and emotions. I write out of sheer love for expressing the thoughts tumbling around my head. Before weblogs there were paper journals – and these are still a medium of expression for me – but blogging allows the benefit of connecting to an audience, of connecting to a network and to friends. And my belief, like Blue Poppy notes, is that I need not write at all if I am not inclined to be honest. If I am unwilling to put my true self out into the world, I may as well say nothing at all. But the one thing I value most in people is the willingness to be themselves, warts and vices and passions and all. And so I write what I feel. I write what I see and what God teaches me. And I learn about myself (and others) through the exercise. If no one in the entire world reads my posts, I am still blessed by the act of sorting through my mind and committing thoughts to words. It’s the most precious gift God has given to me. Happily, I am also blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who love me in spite of everything else. Even when they don’t agree with what I may write. That is freedom, and I embrace it.

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So now I know what not to do in subsequent readathons. If I find myself in this same predicament again, I’ll need to remind myself to set that book aside for another day and pick up a novel that is truly enjoyable and doesn’t make me work so hard to find its value. Loyalty and determination can only go so far, and I see now that a readathon is not the time to prove something to myself. If only there was a Hunger Games series for each and every readathon! I’d never struggle again.

In keeping with tradition, I’ve included my final readathon numbers here, as well as the “official” End-of-Event Meme from the Readathon blog. The next event is scheduled for October 2012. I hope you’ll make plans to join the fun! Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog and posted to Twitter throughout the ‘thon; your encouragement really does make a huge difference, especially in the wee hours of the night.

385  pages read (including 20 or so that I skimmed through)

14.5  total hours spent reading

75% of 1  book completed

1  book attempted during readathon

Which hour was most daunting for you? The toughest time for me is always around Hour 20. I had to give in this time, actually. Had my book been better, or had I not developed a headache, I might have been able to hold out till the end. I’ll strive for that in the fall.

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Of the four readathons I’ve done, the easiest was while reading The Hunger Games series. It is so engaging and so well-written that I truly could not put it down. Even when I tried to force myself to step away from it and read something in a different tone I couldn’t stop wondering what would be coming next in the series. No other book has kept me so engrossed that I didn’t have any desire for sleep. It’s an excellent choice for a readathon!

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Everyone really does a great job with keeping participants engaged that I can’t think of much to make it better. I have sometimes wondered about the other participants in my cheer team, though. Perhaps each team could be posted on the website, with both cheer leaders and readers of each team? While I’ve never taken charge as a cheerleader, I often like to encourage other readers when they post to Twitter or when I see a blog post referenced somewhere. So it might be cool to see a list of participants who are grouped together for the cheer teams so that those of us within that team could encourage each other, even as our cheer leader is touching base with each of us. Just a thought!

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The hourly posts on the official website were right on target each and every time. And the mini-challenges were clearly denoted so that I could always see what was new and where to find them. Having a central hub for the readathon is much appreciated!

How many books did you read? Sadly, there was just the one, and it is not yet completed.

What were the names of the books you read? The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

Which book did you enjoy most? n/a

Which did you enjoy least? n/a

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I always plan to participate! Every Spring and every Fall. It’s just such fun!

I’m beginning to tire again, and a slight headache has settled in behind one eye, so I may not continue through until Hour 24. But I’ll definitely make a final recap post when all is said and done. This particular readathon has been different for me, and I need to document my thoughts so that I can refer back to them in October when the Fall Readathon comes around. Some lessons need to be recalled.

109 pages read this period (plus another 5 pages skimmed)

342 total pages read

3.75 hours spent reading (this period)

13 total hours spent reading

67% of 1 book completed

1 book attempted during readathon

108 pages read this period (give or take, due to skimming over some paragraphs)

229 of 512 total page count

3.0 hours spent reading (this period)

– book(s) completed

– books attempted during readathon

Snapshot from my readings: two passages that speak to aspects of baseball that make me love it so… the all-encompassing effect it has on a person’s life and the ritual and superstition that is so much a part of the game.
 


   from Chapters 22 and 29 of The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

40 pages read this period

121 of 512 total page count

5.5 hours spent reading

4.0 hours spent napping

– book(s) completed

– books attempted during readathon

There was far too much blog-hopping and Twitter-checking during the first hours of the readathon, so I’m ready now to buckle down and commit. I’ll likely check in with page counts on Twitter as I shift reading spots and stop for momentary stretches, but this blog may be silent until a late night update. Drop me a note if you’re still hanging in.