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Twentieth Anniversary of the Publication of *Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist*

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Exactly 20 years ago today I published my first book on Amazon, Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist. This first book still has a special place in my heart. So many loved ones supported and encouraged me as I put Blessings together: I think it was my friend, Marjorie, who first told me about print-on-demand publishing companies and encouraged me to look into getting my book in print; Mel, the wife of the man who had saved my dad and his teammates on K2 in 1953, was instrumental in keeping me going – every time I’d hit a glitch she would call me out of the blue – like magic! – to tell me how much she was looking forward to seeing my book in print; and other friends took the time to read my manuscript and give me helpful feedback. I completed the manuscript in time to give typed copies to my mom, and my aunts Junie and Elsie for Mother’s day in 2005. And on August 9, 2005, I published it with CreateSpace – an Amazon publishing company.

After I published it, friends encouraged me to submit it to the Writer’s Digest people to get feedback on it. Their feedback was encouraging:

“Blessings” subtitle, “Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist,” draws immediate attention to the book, and , as it turns out, proves a very apt choice. Ms. Terrell’s sense of humor is appealing on many different levels throughout, and is a most welcome addition often found lacking in similar books. The introduction does a good job of explaining who the author is and why she wrote her book; likewise, the linear notes on the back cover peak the reader’s interest. The book’s length is just about right for an inspirational title, short enough to read in one sitting if desired. From a technical standpoint, the author has clearly studied the craft of writing: her style is smooth and easy to read. Blessings is a book that should have wide appeal to readers of all – or no religious background.

On the downside: The cover of this book leaves much to be desired. In short, it is bland and unappealing – completely the opposite of the content.

***

(I hadn’t even known that the cover was going to be part of the feedback.)

A year or so later, I republished my book (with a new cover), and then, when there were a couple other books in the series, I changed the cover again so all the books in the series looked like they belonged together.

Blessings has brought so many new friends into my life and connected me with people all over the world. Blessings has been a blessing to me.

An AI-generated review on Amazon says: “Customers say
Customers find the book inspirational, particularly appreciating its prayerful approach to life. They describe it as heartwarming and an interesting memoir, with one customer noting how the author shares her life stories with joy. The writing style receives positive feedback for being beautifully written, and customers value the author’s honesty in sharing her experiences.

Inspirational message Heartwarming story Writing style Honesty”

***

Here are some actual human reviews:

RobertJ

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Karen for Writing this Book

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2009

Verified Purchase

To echo the reviews of others, I did laugh, I did cry, this book touched my soul. My wife and I read it out loud on a snowy New Hampshire day and there were numerous times when I had to pause as the lump formed in my throat. I’ve been a Christian Scientist for most of my adult life and this book tells my story and the story of many fellow travelers. I recommend this book highly for anyone who would like to see how prayer can make a difference in your life, in ways both large and small.

SB

5.0 out of 5 stars Light-hearted book packs a powerful punch

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2010

First, I confess that prior to reading this book, I had run into the author on Amazon’s discussion forums and was smitten by her genuinely effervescent and kind personality. When I heard she had written a book, I was excited to get my hands on it.

Terrell’s gentle, humorous journal introduced Christian Science to me, and I read this while going through a particularly dark period in life. Her words flow easily over everyday situations while imbuing an underlying spirituality, all without a trace of condescension or arrogance – just awe and appreciation for life. Her alternating reference, probably reflecting the view of Christian Science, to God as either She or He, was acutely refreshing, as I’ve struggled with (among other things) Abrahamic religions’ emphasis on maleness.

I connected with “Blessings” because the author effortlessly lets the reader into her world. She helped remind me of the vast diversity of spiritual experiences in our world when I was ready to give up on the idea.

Fred Lloyd

5.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2007

One reviewer recommends this book to those who may need a lift. I recommend this book for anyone including, devoted Christian Scientists. When I came across it I wondered if it would be appropriate as a Christmas gift to my wife who is a Christian Scientist. I think it is a wonderful sharing. Karen becomes your friend, someone you know and love and you know if she knew you, she would love you the way you want to be loved. I may be wrong, but I don’t believe anyone else could have written this book. It is a stand alone item that gives us a window of life that is rare indeed.

Lisa Kristy

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

Karen has touched my soul with her heartwarming and hilarious rendition of the road less traveled. Everyone I know has had to listen to me go on and on about how great a read this is! Whether you want to laugh, cry, or just smile about life again, read this!!!

_

5.0 out of 5 stars All the great reviews influenced me … and they were right!!!

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2011

Verified Purchase

OK, after reading the reviews, I thought this might make a nice Christmas present for a friend. When it arrived I decided to “peek” at a few pages, but couldn’t put it down. I finished reading it in one sitting. But how to review the book is a challenge. It leaves you with such a joyful uplifted feeling and one of appreciation and relevance. At first I found myself saying, “I want to know this woman” and after I finished the book I felt I did.

Karen brings very positive reinforcement into the reader’s experience and the easy flowing style just melts in your mouth like comfort food. I found dozens of instances where I saw a parallel in my own life, that were entertaining and inspirational in a down to earth sort of way.

I’m wearing a smile having read this and can’t think of a better way to pass an evening than this quick roller-coaster ride through another’s eyes of refreshing gratitude.

It touched my heart and soul. Highly recommended.



Review for *Gone with the Penguins* by Hazel Prior

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Note to the author: Hazel Prior, you never fail to uplift me. Thank you for sending your light out into the Cosmos. Your books give me hope for the world; bolster my courage to try to help save it; and always leave me with happy tears. Granny McReedy inspires me to never give up exploring and learning and growing.

Quotes from Gone with the Penguins:

“We will take each day as it comes. Neither of us is a stranger to grief, but we are united and we are strong. Old age is remarkably edifying. Like wartime, it highlights the fragility of life, and its preciousness. Walk, for tomorrow you may be lame. Admire the flowers, for tomorrow you may be blind. Listen to the birds, for tomorrow you may be deaf. Hug those you love, for tomorrow they may be gone. So may you. It is more important to enjoy the moment than to worry about future ones or regret past ones.”
***

“To walk is to think. To walk is to observe. To walk is to take in the wonders of the world.”
***

“Strong?” she mutters. “Well, I must say, ‘strong’ is open to interpretation. I used to believe it meant hardness, blocking off one’s feelings, never sharing, never letting on, never crying. And I suspect you think strength means diving headlong into adventures. But real strength also means trusting. Trusting others, and trusting yourself, too. Allowing yourself to feel what you feel. Knowing that, although we cannot see it, there is more, much more, beyond.”
***

“It’s the Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights,” Sir Robert gasps.

“We gaze and gaze. It seems that all the crazy, miraculous, wonderful things that have been hiding throughout my life now cannot contain themselves any longer; they are spilling out across the universe.”
***

“And slowly the swirl of snowflakes clears, and reveals hundreds upon hundreds of similar families grouped behind them, smudges of grey, black, yellow and white blending into the whiter white. Tiny chicks peek out from brood pouches, insulated by their parents’ padding. Toddlers waddle about in fuzzy fleeces, bedraggled wet fur on their nether regions, dragging tiny tails behind them. Adults look on or usher them forward. Every mother and father is swollen with pride, brimming with devotion; almost unbearable sweetness in the snow.”
***

“How can I expain to them this fire that burns within me? They see me with myopic eyes; they see me as too old. They do not realize that every old person contains a young person, one who remains wide open to change, to hope, to possibility.”
***

“We have music, though,” Eileen puts in. “And all sorts of hobbies. Did Darwin explain that? I don’t suppose tiddlywinks or knitting or singing help me survive, but they do make life so much nicer.”
***

“A ‘like’ is apparently a mark of approval from your peers. Young people collect and count them to measure their own self-worth.”
***

“Phones nowadays aren’t content to be merely phones; they pompously insist on being cameras, encyclopedias, calculators, personal trainers, news reporters, gossipmongers and much else besides. In fact, with such receptacles containing one’s entire life, one scarecely needs a brain at all. I have chosen not to possess such a machine. My brain has always worked perfectly well, and should it require a little boost, all I need to do is to consult Eileen.”
***

“No challenge should be faced without great hope, bold lipstick and a smart, good-quality handbag.”
***

New Reviews

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There’s a new review on Amazon for my book Cosmic Connections: Sharing the Joy!
SB writes:
“I often feel like I’m right there with the author in her small town travels and happenings. The writing is fluid, poignant, and personal, yet universal – easy to translate to any place. It got me thinking about life, love, and the smallness of this big world.”

I so appreciate when someone takes the time to write a review for one of my books. It means so much to me when I read a review like this because it helps me feel I’ve connected to someone else in a positive way.

This morning I finished reading Joanna Nell’s new book, Mrs. Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year. I love Joanna Nell’s books. Here’s the review I wrote for the one I finished this morning:

I so enjoy Joanna Nell’s stories. Joanna Nell gives dignity and respect to her aging characters. Her characters are full of life and humor, wanting to make use of every moment left to them. Her books inspire me. She makes growing old fun.

My father lived to be 101 and, even as he was losing his memory, he wanted to get out and go on drives and have adventures with me. As I read Joanna Nell’s books, I can see him as the hero in one of her stories. That makes me smile.



New Review for *Looking Forward*

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I just got a new review on Goodreads for Looking Forward: More Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist. The reviewer filled my heart with her kindness. I really needed her kindness today. Here’s what H. Benson wrote:

Karen’s message is one of LOVE’s ability to carry us through the ups and downs of daily life as well as support us and provide hope in these crazy times when the world seems to have gone mad.

I’ve had the pleasure of reading 3 of Karen Molenaar Terrell’s books, the most recent being “Looking Forward,” which I’ve read twice in the past couple of months. It provides solace to the soul as you read of the kindness, love, humor, and compassion that infuses Karen’s life and daily activities with aging parents, husband, adult sons, extended family, pets, and community. She shares about her life with such openness and vulnerability that when you’ve finished reading, you feel like you’ve thoroughly enjoyed catching up with your best friend and you’re looking forward to your next get-together.

All teachers should read Karen’s chapter on education. The country and the world would be a far better place if teachers shared Karen’s perspective on students and incorporated her creative ways of sharing academic lessons and life’s wisdom with students.

Karen’s political campaign gives the reader a taste of how our country’s leaders could and should be: intelligent, passionate, respectful, articulate and kind. How we sorely need that in this world!

The quotations and book references with which Karen begins each chapter have been added to my reading list. If they inspired Karen, they are sure to inspire me.

This “Madcap Christian Scientist” has a heartfelt and hopeful message for all of us: LOVE and a sense of humor are the keys to a fulfilling life.

First Review for Cosmic Connections

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Hey! Check it out! I’ve now got two five-star ratings AND a written review for Cosmic Connections: Sharing the Joy! Thank you to the “Amazon Customer” who took the time to write this review. If you’re an author, you know how much that means…

Amazon Customer writes:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful book!
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2021
Verified Purchase
“Cosmic Connections” follows the excursions of an extraverted author and photographer who befriends nearly every person who crosses her path. This uplifting read highlights life’s small moments of connection — with strangers, old friends she meets by chance, the hapless, friendly dogs and former students. The author uses brief anecdotes—one or two pages—to show how much goodness permeates life. One entry describes meeting a stranger, only to find out she is the daughter of the minister who married her and her husband (in another part of the state) 30 years before. Her warm writing style and enthusiasm for life is infectious.
AMAZON.COMDelightful book!

New Review!

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I got a new review on Goodreads for Are You Taking Me Home Now?: Adventures with Dad and I just have to share – this one meant a lot to me:

Nikki writes: “Once again, Ms. Terrell takes the reader on a journey through her life. The glimpses and stories of what it is like taking care of the people who raised you are stories that bring hope, a few tears, and a whole lot of love. Through reading Ms. Terrell’s adventures with her 100 year old father, we see the love they have for each other, and the strength this season of life requires.The book offers hope, humor, love, compassion, tenderness and family.”

adventures with dad book cover

Latest book!

*Becoming* by Michelle Obama

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Becoming touched my heart. It made me cry, it made me laugh, and it made me remember the pride I felt in America when we came together to make something amazing happen. In an odd way, reading Becoming – a book that recounts the author’s past – renews my hope in the future. I figure if Americans can come together to elect Barack Obama for our president, we have the potential to do great things in the future, too.

Michelle Obama is a wonderful writer – a natural. Reading her book feels like sitting down at the dining room table with her and talking with her about the things that women friends talk about when they’re together – the experiences of being a daughter, a wife, a mother, and a career woman – and how we juggle all of that.

I feel like I know Michelle Obama now. Like she’s a friend. I’m so glad she’s taken the time to write Becoming and to define, herself, who she is – rather than to give that power to others.

***

“I confessed then to the Queen that my feet were hurting. She confessed that hers hurt, too. We looked at each other then with identical expressions, like, *When is all this standing around with world leaders going to finally wrap up?* And with this, she busted out with a fully charming laugh.

“Forget that she sometimes wore a diamond crown and that I’d flown to London on the presidential jet; we were just two tired ladies oppressed by our shoes.”
– Michelle Obama, Becoming

“That was how we talked about bullies. When I was a kid, it was easy to grasp: Bullies were scared people hiding inside scary people.”
– Michelle Obama, Becoming

“Everyone on earth, they’d tell us, was carrying around an unseen history, and that alone deserved some tolerance.”
– Michelle Obama, Becoming

“I’ve been lucky enough now in my life to meet all sorts of extraordinary and accomplished people… What I’ve learned is this: All of them have had doubters. Some continue to have roaring, stadium-sized collections of critics and naysayers who will shout *I told you so* at every little misstep or mistake. The noise doesn’t go away, but the most successful people I know have figured out how to live with it, to lean on the people who believe in them, and to push onward with their goals.”
– Michelle Obama, Becoming

“You had only to look around at the faces in the room to know that despite their strengths these girls would need to work hard to be seen…I knew they’d have to push back against the stereotypes that would get put on them, all the ways they’d be defined before they’d had a chance to define themselves. They’d need to fight the invisibility that comes with being poor, female, and of color. They’d have to work to find their voices and not be diminished, to keep themselves from getting beaten down. They would have to work just to learn.

“But their faces were hopeful, and now so was I. For me it was a strange, quiet revelation: They were me, as I’d once been. And I was them, as they could be. The energy I felt thrumming in that school had nothing to do with obstacles. It was the power of nine hundred girls striving.”
– Michelle Obama, Becoming

“One day in San Antonio, Texas, I noticed a minor commotion in the hallway of the military hospital I was visiting. Nurses shuffled urgently in and out of the room I was about to enter. ‘He won’t stay in bed,’ I heard someone whisper. Inside, I found a broad-shouldered young man from rural Texas who had multiple injuries and whose body had been severely burned. He was in clear agony, tearing off the bedsheets and trying to slide his feet to the floor.

“It took us a minute to understand what he was doing. Despite his pain, he was trying to stand up and salute the wife of his commander in chief.”
– Michelle Obama, Becoming

“I was getting worn out, not physically, but emotionally. The punches hurt, even if I understood that they had little to do with who I really was as a person. It was as if there were some cartoon version of me out there wreaking havoc, a woman I kept hearing about but didn’t know – a too-tall, too-forceful, ready-to-emasculate Godzilla of a political wife named Michelle Obama.”
– Michelle Obama, Becoming

“I was used to it by now – his devotion to the never-finished task of governing. For years, the girls and I had shared Barack with his constituents, and now there were more than 300 million of them. Leaving him alone in the Treaty Room at night, I wondered sometimes if they had any sense of how lucky they were.

“The last bit of work he did, usually at some hour past midnight, was to read letters from American citizens… He read letters from soldiers. From prison inmates. From cancer patients struggling to pay health-care premiums and from people who’d lost their homes to foreclosure. From gay people who hoped to be able to legally marry and from Republicans who felt he was ruining the country. From moms, grandfathers, and young children. He read letters from people who appreciated what he did and from others who wanted to let him know he was an idiot.

“He read all of it, seeing it as part of the responsibility that came with the oath. He had a hard and lonely job – the hardest and loneliest in the world, it often seemed to me – but he knew that he had an obligation to stay open, to shut nothing out. While the rest of us slept, he took down the fences and let everything inside.”
– Michelle Obama, Becoming

 

“Don’t look at me. I just got here myself.”

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My young friend, Jonathan, gave me the gift of Kurt Vonnegut’s If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? for Christmas. I enjoyed it immensely. I found Vonnegut’s musings on life comforting and reassuring. Vonnegut reminded me that the times we are now entering are not any worse that the times that have come before. And he assured me that – although I maybe can’t fix the whole world – I can, at least, make my little corner of it a more humane and beautiful place.

“I apologize because of the terrible mess the planet is in. But it has always been a mess. There have never been any ‘Good Old Days,’ there have just been days. And as I say to my grandchildren, ‘Don’t look at me. I just got here myself.'”
– Kurt Vonnegut

 “Dr. Vonnegut said this to his doddering old dad: ‘Father, we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.'”
– Kurt Vonnegut, quoting his son, Mark.

“The teacher… asked me one time, ‘What is it artists do?… They do two things,’ he said, ‘First they admit they can’t straighten out the whole universe. And then second, they make at least one little part of it exactly as it should be. A blob of clay, a square of canvas, a piece of paper, or whatever.'”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“I suggest to you Adams and Eves that you set as your goals the putting of some small part of the planet into something like safe and sane and decent order. There’s a lot of cleaning up to do. There’s a lot of rebuilding to do, both spiritual and physical. And, again, there’s going to be a lot of happiness. Don’t forget to notice!”
– Vonnegut speaking at Butler University.

“My politics in a nutshell: let’s stop giving corporations and newfangled contraptions what they need and get back to giving human beings what we need.”
– Kurt vonnegut

***

“How about Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?

‘Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth,
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy,
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God…’

“For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

“‘Blessed are the merciful’ in a courtroom? ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ in the Pentagon? Give me a break!”
– Kurt Vonnegut

***

“Revenge provokes revenge which provokes revenge which provokes revenge – forming an unbroken chain of death and destruction linking nations of today to barbarous tribes of thousands and thousands of years ago.

“We may never dissuade leaders of our nation or any other nation from responding vengefully, violently, to every insult or injury. In this Age, the Age of Television, they will continue to find irresistible the temptation to become entertainers, to compete with movies by blowing up bridges and police stations and factories and so on…

“But in our personal lives, our inner lives, at least, we can learn to live without the sick excitement… And we can teach our children and our grandchildren to do the same – so that they, too, can never be a threat to anyone.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

***

“When my father was dying, he said, ‘I want to thank you, because you’ve never put a villain in any of your stories.’ The secret ingredient in my books is, there has never been a villain.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“…I would like to infect people with humane ideas before they’re able to defend themselves.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“Culture is a gadget; it’s something we inherit. And you can fix it the way you fix a broken oil burner. You can fix it continuously.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“Persuasive guessing has been at the core of leadership for so long for all of human experience so far that it is wholly unsurprising that most of the leaders of this planet, in spite of all the information that is suddenly ours, want the guessing to go on… Our leaders are sick of all the solid information that has been dumped on humanity by research and scholarship and investigative reporting. They think that the whole country is sick of it, and they could be right. It isn’t the gold standard that they want to put us back on; they want something even more basic than that. They want to put us back on the snake-oil standard again.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“Our founding fathers never promised us that this would be a painless form of Government, that adhering to the Bill of Rights would invariably be delightful. Nor are Americans proud of avoiding pain at all costs… So it is not too much to ask of Americans that they not be censors, that they run the risk of being deeply wounded by ideas so that we may all be free. If we are wounded by an ugly idea, we must count it as part of the cost of freedom and, like American heroes in the days gone by, bravely carry on.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“So the advice I give myself at the age of 71 is the best advice I could have given myself in 1940, when detraining for the first time in Ithaca, having come all the way from Indianapolis: ‘Keep your hat on. We may wind up miles from here.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“And here’s what I think the truth is: we are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, we are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“Much has been written about the effects on institutions of higher learning of the sudden influx of veterans after my war. One thing it did was bamboozle many teachers whose authority and glamour was based on their having seen more life and the world than their students had. In seminars I would occasionally try to talk about something I had observed about human beings while a soldier, as a prisoner of war, as a family man. I had a wife and kid then. This turned out to be very bad manners, like coming to a crap game with loaded dice. No fair.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

***

Kurt Vonnegut speaking to Joe Heller, author of *Catch-22*:

“‘Joe, how does it make you feel to realize that only yesterday our host probably made more money than Catch-22, one of the most popular books of all time, has grossed world-wide over the last forty years?’

“Joe said to me, ‘I have something he can never have.’

“I said, ‘What’s that, Joe?’

“And he said, ‘The knowledge that I’ve got enough.'”
– Kurt Vonnegut