Catch-up Time

Lately:

• my words have been sparce and

• my average reader does not check my web site on a regular basis where I posted some new words and

• my average reader checks in here at my blog and leaves messages of encouragement and

• even on the 3rd day of summer, it is a long, hot, dry summer in Texas...

SO. I want to post here the summer message I left on my website, Liz Writes in Texas.

 

Summer

 And Welcome to Eberle Hill

 

     If it seemed that March was akward, heavy, and TIRED, we had forgotten summer in Texas during a drought.
    Even before the first day of summer, we were hanging on and moving slowly trough the hottest, driest, most awful dry spell since the 1950's.
     While folks in the midwest suffer through horrendous floods and ravaging, killer tornados, in Texas even hummingbirds depend on humans for food. The weatherman said, "There is no hope."
     Some of us know otherwise. Regardless of the charts, computer composits, cloud charts, Nino and Nenas and whatever else humans use, God IS in charge. He IS our hope. It rains and it does not rain and it floods and blows away all moisture on both the just and on the unjust.
    But, I'm wondering. My own human heart becomes lonely and cries out in anguish when one or another of my children gets so busy they forget to call or e-mail or post on Face Book. I think things like, "well, just wait until they want something from me!!"
   Then the phone rings, my face breaks into a bright smile as one or another of my offspring's voice says, "Hi, Mom / Memaw." We visit and talk, give pdates, ask questions, he/she/they say 'I love you,' and we talk and talk and my heart overflows. He, she or they could ask for my last shirt and I would rip it off and special deliver it to him/her/they.
     I'm spending a lot of time with my Holy Father these days... and not just because if we don't get rain soon, we will scorch to death or literally burn up or lose everything... but because my heart sings when I visit and talk with Him... I trust.
     Even though the wind blows hot, and the land is brown, and the cattle are being sold off, the view from our home in the Texas Hill Country is hopeful. The soil, dry as it is, continues to nurture my soul and I flavor my soups, stories, blog posts, prayers, and visits with my children with the few drought-tolerant herbs from my garden and with spices from our lives.
      Mostly, we'll praise the Lord Jesus Christ. Even on the dead days of a long, hot summer when the land is brittle-dry and grass hopper threaten the last of our vegetation.
     I hope you'll enjoy meeting the folks who wander around our hill. Some are very real human people and others are illusions of my heart who come alive when I pen their stories. 
     Please visit the other pages that list my published writing. There might be a hint here and there about words-in-progress.
    And--through flood or drought or fire or hail or hurricnes let us keep praising God---AND asking Him for His mercy.
 

Blessings from my heart,

Liz

P.S. IF you check out my web-site, you’ll find that one of my stories, “Secrets from the Creek,” won the First Price in the West Texas Writers 2011 Short Story Contest (see page: Contests). I’m shocked and thrilled!