Here is a picture of a pond with two heron sculptures that was in one of the gardens we toured last spring. The garden sits on the top of a hill but is surrounded by house and trees so it's very private. I just thought it was really cool. A lovely oasis in the hot desert (101 today)My son left for San Diego today, after communion. In some ways it's weirdly disconcerting to have him gone and planning a life in another city. In others, the way our lives are these days, where technology and travel have closed the distance gaps that once would have meant you wouldn't even have contact for months or years, it doesn't seem so bad. He says he'll be back in three weeks. And three weeks is nothing. (Alas, when it comes to book progress)
I did email my editor last week, and she graciously gave me a few more days, so sometime this next week I plan to be done. Of course I've planned a lot of things that never happened, or happened differently, and I've written about the seeming futility of planning ("The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps). I am currently working on drafting chapter 30. Chapters 1 - 25 and 27 are ready to go. Chs 26, 28, 29 await a final run through to fill the pot holes and put barricades up where the reader is likely to fall off a cliff. It dawned on me last week that I could put in something that wasn't so good, or even not right, and that would be better for someone reading it than the sudden drop off to an asterisk and then taking new things up with no warning.
At least I am now working on the ending. I've got a lot of material that I want to try and put together in the most economical way. I don't want to run on and on here. Unfortunately (for me) trying to be economical is a lot harder than running on and on. So today I didn't get much done. Well, mostly because of communion where some friends from northern Arizona were able to join us for the first time since January, and my son was leaving (neither of which inclined me to rush away immediately after service) and the shooting... Oh. I don't think I mentioned that, yet.
The road that many of us take to the home where we meet for church was the site of a town-spanning shooting spree which involved a police officer shot and not expected to live. The timing was such that as close as I can figure, the shooter in his red Mustang came barrelling down the road not long after I (and several others) had turned off into the gated community where we meet, and not long before the arrival of still others traveling the same path. The officer was shot maybe four or five hundred yards up the road from where we turned off. Talk about being reminded of God's protective hand and timing upon one's life!
Our hearts go out to the police officer and his family though. One of the things that struck me was that though there were several officers wounded in this spree, no civilians were. They did their jobs of protecting us, even though it may well cost one of them his life. Reminds you of the fact that they really do stand in the gap and do an awful lot to give us the peaceful and secure lives we mostly take for granted.
Gratefully,
Karen
