Yup. I had one of those today. 🙂
photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell
A Perfect Moment
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Category Archives: Christian Science
When Eyes Light Up
When the sons were still toddlers
their eyes would light up when they saw me
at the door and there’d be big grins
on their faces and arms stretched
towards me to wrap around my neck.
And my heart would give a little jump of joy.
The sons are grown now
and I didn’t expect to ever see
again eyes light up at the sight of me.
But yesterday –
My dad’s eyes lit up when he saw me
at the door, and he said, “What a nice surprise!
It’s so good to see your smile again!”
And I ask you:
Is there anything more magical than eyes
that light up when you appear at the door?
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Tenth Birthbookday
We all have our stories to tell – everyone has something of value to share with others – I’m convinced of this. I hope that if you haven’t shared YOUR story, yet, you will find the means to do so. Your story is important. YOU are important.
***
Ten years ago today I clicked whatever last button I needed to click to officially publish the first Madcap book. The whole process – from typing the first word on the first page to the moment I clicked that button – had been like magic for me. I’d written other books before – at one point I’d even managed to get myself a successful literary agent to represent one of my books of fiction for young adults (a book I later asked my agent to stop trying to sell for me because I no longer liked it) – but none of those experiences with writing had quite the same feeling as the four months I worked on Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist.
I started writing Blessings in April. My original goal had been to have the manuscript finished by Mother’s Day – I wanted to bind it up and give it to my mom as a Mother’s Day gift – a thank you for raising me to believe in the power of Good. But at some point early on – and I’m not even sure how this happened now – I began writing the book for a wider audience.
Authoring Blessings was effortless, really – the words flowed in a steady stream out of me and onto the paper. This time I wasn’t writing to try to impress or please whatever random editor might end up with my manuscript in her hands. This time *I* was the editor, and my target audience weren’t the executives at some high-falootin New York City publishing house, but people like me – people who could laugh with me at life’s embarrassing moments, and join me as I climbed mountains, traveled to Europe, met my husband, became a mother, and rescued The Christmas Dog. There was a certain freedom in publishing my own work that I didn’t have when I sent my work to others to publish for me – I had complete control over my words and my story – Blessings was not subject to the whims and dictates of anyone else. That felt good.
The only real obstacles I can remember in the authoring process were technical ones – the printer not working; my computer’s hard drive blowing out; not being able to connect with the internet when I needed to communicate with the folks at Booksurge (the print-on-demand publisher I used). But it never failed – every time I would start getting discouraged by the technical challenges I would get a call from a friend or family member supporting me and encouraging me – and the obstacle would vanish. Really, there was a whole community of loved ones who were as much a part of publishing this book as I was.
When I stopped worrying about trying to impress people with my writing, I found my voice. When my motivation was to share laughter and inspiration with my fellow adventurers, no obstacle could stop me. My skills and talents as a writer were no longer an end in themselves – a way to earn praise and kudos – but now they were simply useful tools to help me tell my story. Writing this book felt “right” to me. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such joy and freedom in the writing process as I did when I wrote Blessings.
***
We all have our stories to tell – everyone has something of value to share with others – I’m convinced of this. I hope that if you haven’t shared YOUR story, yet, you will find the means to do so. Your story is important. YOU are important.
***
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of its publication, the kindle version of Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist can be purchased for just $2.99 on Amazon for the next week or so. What a deal, right? I mean… $2.99 is less than you’d pay for a 12 ounce mocha at Starbucks. Or a pack of 24 pencils at Staples. Or a tortilla lime chocolate bar from Komforte Chocolates.
This Body
This body has done everything I’ve asked of it. Since I was 10 months old and taking my first steps, this body has been my chief form of transportation – and my most reliable one. It’s conveyed me to the tops of Mount Rainier, Baker, Adams and Hood. It’s brought me through amazing places of meadows and waterfalls, and sparkling deserts – taken me through foreign streets and foreign landscapes, and through the gardens and orchards of my own backyard. This body has run races, and jumped over high jump bars, caught baseballs and served volleyballs and swung a tennis racket. Its hands have clasped other hands in friendship, stroked my babies’ foreheads as they drifted into sleep, bandaged knees, tied shoes, painted and typed and weeded the garden. This body has given me the means to dance and sing. It’s birthed my two sons for me. Its eyes have given me a means to see the beauty surrounding me, and its ears have given me access to music and laughter. This body has been my faithful instrument; a loyal tool. It may not be as quick or light or nimble as it once was, but it has served me well, and I am grateful for it. So no, you aren’t going to hear me disparaging this body’s weight, or its wrinkles, or its age spots. You aren’t going to hear me talking about this body as if it’s my enemy. This body deserves more than that. This body rocks!
The elements and functions of the physical body and of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition for organic and functional health in the human body may no longer be found indispensable to health. Moral conditions will be found always harmonious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction nor overaction is beyond God’s control; and man will be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought, and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than he was in the prior states which human belief created and sanctioned.
– Mary Baker Eddy
It’s All a Matter of Perspective
It’s all a matter of perspective… 🙂
photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell
“Home!”
Okay, this little moment brought me a lot of joy yesterday: Moz and Dad and I went to a meeting yesterday afternoon (Mom had asked me to come down and go to a meeting with their bankers with them). I could tell the meeting was a struggle for Dad – he can’t hear well and was having a hard time keeping up with what was going on. The meeting took about an hour and then the folks loaded back into my car and I drove them to their new apartment. As soon as Dad walked into his new apartment his whole face lit up and he made his way to his favorite seat on the couch. When he sat down he smiled, let out a deep sigh of satisfaction, and said, “Home!”
I am so proud of Mom and Dad. They’ve made so many huge changes in the last couple months – and they’ve approached each new change with courage and fortitude and done what they needed to do. I know it wasn’t easy for Dad to leave the old homestead – “I loved this place,” he said as he sat at the kitchen counter of the homestead one last time – and then he put on his faithful alpine hat, took one last look around, turned off the lights, and headed out the door to his new life. And now, seeing him happy in his new home – that just means the world to me.
I asked him if there was anything I could bring him to his new home. He said no. He didn’t want material things anymore. He pointed to the books lying around him and said that as long as he’s surrounded by his mountain books, he’s home.
And Moz! Ohmygosh! She has just been amazing. She’s had to make so many decisions and choices in the last few months – and she hasn’t shirked from a single one – she’s done what she needed to do for Dad and for herself, and done it with grace and humor and courage.
I am really proud to be their daughter.
If You Have a Voice
If you have a voice…
Behold, the ant!
Spirit duly feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the fatherhood and motherhood of God. Spirit names and blesses all. Without natures particularly defined, objects and subjects would be obscure, and creation would be full of nameless offspring, – wanderers from the parent Mind, strangers in a tangled wilderness.
– Mary Baker Eddy
Photo of peonies and ant by Karen Molenaar Terrell.
http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/a/10-cool-facts-about-ants.htm
Limiting Beauty
If we believe that beauty…
Photo of blue butterfly by Karen Molenaar Terrell.
He Does Dentistry on the Side
Had my yearly visit with Hansrolf today. I mostly go there for the laughs, but Hansrolf also performs dentistry on the side. I’ve been visiting Hansrolf for about 30 years, I guess. He is just two months older than me. We married at the same ages, and our sons were born the same years – our oldest sons were sometime-rivals at the local recreational basketball tournaments and it was always fun to run into him at those games. He and I used to share our latest mountain climbing and hiking adventures, and sometimes he’d ask me to tell him about the latest “trashy” (I used this word first, but he seemed to have great fun using it once I had) romance I was writing (ahem… I went through a short period in my life – a VERY short period – like, a year or two… okay, maybe three at the most – when I wrote historical romances involving British soldiers on the Iberian Peninsula and feisty English governesses… I know… stop laughing). But nowadays we mostly just crack up about the adventures of middle age together.
Today I asked his newest assistant if Hansrolf keeps her laughing at work, and just the question made her start cracking-up. Then she shared his latest shenanigans with me – apparently Hansrolf has taken to jumping out from closets and hallways and scaring the living daylights out of his technicians and assistants.
I glanced over at the room across from mine and saw that Hansrolf had made it to my husband. I couldn’t hear what Hansrolf was saying to him – but Scott was laughing so hard it looked like tears had started to leak out of his eyes. Hansrolf was working his magic there.
When he came into my room I told Hansrolf I’d been talking with his new dental hygienist and she’d mentioned that he had made it a part of the daily routine to jump out at his assistants from closets and hallways. He nodded his head and said in a matter-of-fact way that he does this to help maintain good health at the office – it keeps his assistants’ hearts pumping, and keeps him agile. This, of course, all made perfect sense to me.
As Hansrolf’s crackerjack team of dental professionals took turns flossing and polishing and x-raying my teeth, there was music being funneled into the room through speakers. But as I listened to the music, it occurred to me that this wasn’t your typical dental office music. This was not Winchester Cathedral I was listening to here. Fleetwood Mac came on singing “Wouldn’t you love to love her?” This was followed by Led Zeppelin. And then it occurred to me that Hansrolf probably had something to do with this.
“Did you pick this music?” I asked around a mouthful of dental instruments. He said it was from a station out of Bellingham. I thought about this for awhile, and then asked,”You know how music is usually geared for the older clients…? So… dang… WE are the older clients now, aren’t we?”
He nodded his head in affirmation. “The other day I was in Safeway and Highway to Hell came on,” he told me. “Safeway!! Highway to Hell!!” he repeated, the shock of the experience still obviously with him. “On the one hand it was good to not have to listen to Dean Martin crooning something, but on the other hand… it says something about how old you are when your music is now considered mainstream and fit for Safeway.”
At the end of our visit, Hansrolf pronounced my teeth “perfect” and sent me off to check out with his receptionist and get my little bag of free stuff – floss, toothpaste, toothbrush. (Hansrolf’s office once donated 100 free toothbrushes to a charity I was involved in through my school.)
And now as I sit here typing this it occurs to me that – seeing as how Hansrolf is my age and everything – and seeing as how we’re both rapidly approaching retirement age – there will probably come a time when I will have to look around for another dentist. It would be nice if I could find another dentist with a sense of humor – but I’m not banking on find another dentist who can keep me laughing in the same way Hansrolf does. Hansrolf is irreplaceable.
