A Valley Rise Christmas--Day Three

Continuing in Hearts Unfold, Emily returns to her home church on the arm of her godfather, Jack Deem,
and is reminded of all she has missed since she left for college.  A chance conversation also reminds her of the possibility of miracles even in the most dire of circumstances.

           In the narthex, the smell of pine boughs and the glow of candlelight wrapped around her, drawing her in.  The sanctuary was already crowded.  Local families swelled with out-of-town guests, sleepy children in the arms of proud grandparents, several young men in uniform, their mothers or sweethearts clinging to their arms, all gathered in anticipation of the hour to come. From her seat next to Jack, she searched the familiar faces.  Down front, Sara McConnell sat between sons Peter and James.  Peter had let his hair grow longer, now that he was at college, and the blonde mane was very becoming.  He was even better looking than the last time Emily had seen him, which must have been almost two years ago.  James, home on leave from Southeast Asia, was in uniform.  Thin and deeply tanned, he looked older, and there was a tense, haggard expression on his face as he gazed down at his mother.

They’d been close friends; Peter and Emily the same age and James four years older, they had played together as children.  She’d even dated Peter briefly during their sophomore year, ending the relationship with an uneasy truce after some awkward attempts at romance.  She smiled as she recalled telling a red-faced Peter he could keep his sweaty hands to himself if that was all he was interested in.  But they had put that aside during their senior year, when she'd been struggling to adjust to life alone and James had been preparing to go overseas.  The three of them had supported each other, finding comfort in the fact they were each moving into a future filled with uncertainty.

Slipping closer to Jack, she looked around in amazement.  This gathering looked like every other Christmas Eve service she'd attended through the years.  The same smiling faces, some looking a bit frail now with age; the same murmur of voices, using every moment to visit before the first notes sounded from the organ.  There were smiles of surprised recognition, and she knew the news of her presence would spread through the congregation by the end of the service.

Behind her, a man and woman were deep in soft-spoken conversation, commenting on the artificial trees with their tiny electric candles that stood grouped behind the crèche figures at the front of the church.  The man was saying what a pity about those cedar trees.  His wife whispered, “You did your best.”

“But it's still a shame not to have real trees.  I just couldn't get to 'em before the ice came.  Guess they're still stacked up on the side of the road by the springs.  Pity, wasting all those trees.”  The woman shushed him softly.

Emily gasped at the vision of a black clad figure, sailing through the darkness and coming to rest on a nest of soft cedar branches.  She looked at Jack's profile, but he seemed not to have heard.  Could that have been what happened?  If the trees intended to decorate the church had indeed cushioned his fall, how could anyone deny Stani had been saved by an act of God?

The organ came to life, and she saw Pastor Mike step to the pulpit, raising his hands for silence.  Over the soft music, Emily listened to his warm, strong voice as he called the people to worship.

         “This is the night of our savior's birth.  Let us open our hearts in welcome as we come together to worship God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit on this most miraculous of nights.”

A Valley Rise Christmas--Day Two

Last time, in Hearts Unfold we saw Emily Haynes preparing her house in anticipation of Christmas with family heirloom decorations, honoring traditions established through the years by her parents.  Today we meet Stani Moss, who has known little or nothing of tradition and yet recognizes the beauty and mystery of the Christmas Eve celebration without understanding its meaning.

Tuning out the conversation in the front seat, he turned his thoughts ahead to the rehearsal tomorrow afternoon.  Robert would drive him to the church where he was scheduled to play for midnight Mass, immediately following the radio broadcast on Christmas Eve.  The evening would be hectic, he knew, but he never turned down the opportunity to perform in a church.  He had played in cathedrals and synagogues, churches and chapels.  The same sense of intimacy, no matter the size of the building, lent a unique depth to his performance, which he had never been able to attain in a concert hall.

Stani especially looked forward to this event.  From that first Christmas Eve Mass at St. Patrick's, just after they'd moved to New York, he'd had a fascination with this particular celebration.  Jana had taken him, her one venture back to her childhood religion.  The pungent-sweet smell of cedar, and the glow of hundreds of candles, along with the glorious music, made a profound impression upon him.  He'd become curious for the first time as to what motivated so many people to come, year after year, to sing the same hymns and whisper the same prayers.  He hadn't pursued religion; it didn't fit into his already over-scheduled young life.  But he’d discovered performing in churches evoked the same emotions he’d experienced that night.  He found himself looking forward to the prospect of spending another Christmas Eve among people who came to greet a child they believed had forever altered the nature of man.  It would be a welcome change from the faceless crowds in dim, smoke-filled rooms, crowds which seemed to be drawing him farther and farther from his own humanity.

A Valley Rise Christmas--Day One

 The holidays are upon us again! How many times have I heard and even said those words in my life? They seem to strike so many emotional chords in each of us. Excitement, dread, tearful memories and warm reassurance, all tied to holidays past. The past several years I've posted this series of scenes from the Valley Rise Series. Once again, I hope they add a little something to your holiday preparations! 

It occurred to me that since there are so many Christmas-related scenes in the Miracle at Valley Rise books, I could share them with you during December as my thank you gift to you for following me here.

While I didn't set out to feature the holidays so prominently, it turned out that Christmas took on very special significance from the beginning.  For all of us, there are certain memories attached to specific times of year, traditions we hold dear, and events we always revisit when the anniversaries roll around.  For the family at Valley Rise Farm, that seems to be especially true.  I hope you'll tune in to share the spirit of the holiday season with the characters who live in the pages of my books.

In this scene from Hearts Unfold, young Emily Haynes has secretly returned to her secluded farmhouse home in search of a way to retrieve what's left of the life she shared with her parents.  With her mother dead and her father in a nursing home, there doesn't appear to be much hope, until Emily decides to take control of her destiny.  Since it's almost Christmas, her first step is to bring a little holiday cheer to her home.

   

After some digging in the closet beneath the stairs, she retrieved the ornaments, garland and lights that had each year decorated a fresh evergreen.  At last she found the crèche, tucked in its own box, each china figurine wrapped in tissue paper.  She recalled packing it away, that first painful Christmas, when she and Pop had pretended not to notice the vast empty space where her mother should have been.  By the next year, they had given up pretending and barely allowed the holiday into the house.

Setting out on her mission to bring Christmas to the room, she eyed the mantel wall first.  The fireplace, flanked by glass-front cabinets and two high windows, would substitute for a tree, she decided.  Humming along with the music, adding a waltzing step every now and then as she worked, she spread silver garland and glowing colored lights across the mantel and the tops of the cabinets.  She added carefully spaced clusters of glass ornaments, shining spheres of red, green and gold, along with blown glass figurines of angels, stars and Father Christmas, all well-remembered from her childhood.  When she’d achieved just the desired effect, she hung the delicate gold star that had always topped the tree, in the center of the chimney.

Going to the other end of the room, she spread a shawl of fringed red velvet on the piano, just as her mother had done every year, and placed an open book of carols on the music rack.  Finally, she took her father's violin from its case and gently nestled it in the folds of the shawl, laying the bow carefully across the strings.  Stepping back, she let out a sigh of satisfaction.  She had paid tribute to the past, mindful of the obvious changes; but she’d also taken a step toward future Christmases.

          Finally, she positioned the figurines facing the fireplace where the little wooden shed waited, well out of harm's way, on the hearth.  Mary and Joseph with the donkey near the front door, the shepherds and their flock of three sheep on the piano bench, and the wise men with their camel on the table next to Pop's chair.  The solitary ox rested in the stable, next to the tiny cross-legged manger filled with paper straw.  The figure of the newborn baby with his outstretched arms she tucked on the mantel near the heralding angel, hidden from sight for now.  Gazing back at the travelers journeying toward her, she laughed softly.  She was truly home for Christmas, as she had never expected to be again.

So Long, Farewell. . .

No, I'm not quitting this blog thing. I'm not going on a trip, moving, or even going shopping. But my laptop is going on a little trip to be repaired, and for possibly as long a week--Horrors!--I'll be without connection to what for me is the outside world. So I thought one last post before the darkness descends might be appropriate.

As most of you who stop in here know, I'm the sole caregiver for my recently disabled husband. Life changes in an instant, but it takes a lot longer to settle into all the newness brought on by that change. After almost two years since the first of what we now look at as a series of events leading to the "big fall," both of us are more or less settled. We don't leave the house together often and when we do it's a bit of an event just getting out the door. We don't have much social life beyond our church family, not that we've had much of one since we moved to Kansas over 15 years ago. But now it's down to an hour or so here and there between John's Bible Study and Sunday morning worship. I make the necessary trips around town for errands and to buy groceries. Otherwise, we're here together 24/7, which is really not a bad thing at all. In the past, we both worked from home and learned how to share our space without driving each other mad. We're good. John has his television and music, and I have the internet, and we have each other.

My social life is really quite active, considering all the truly loyal friends I've made on FB and, to a lesser extent, through this blog. They have seen me through hospital stays, rehab, turning our home upside down, and most recently, a brush with bladder cancer and the steady decline of our financial security. I can honestly say I could not have made it without them. I dread being separated from them for even a few days. I look forward to their posts, the pictures of their families and the events, large and small, of their lives. I watch carefully for updates on illnesses, the sale of homes, moves across country, and children growing up too fast. I enjoy seeing how their gardens grow and the beautiful things they craft, not to mention the delicious dishes they prepare. We're a community of mostly, but not exclusively, women who share and support one another in the simple business of living life and growing up and older. I, who was reluctant to put myself in such a visible place, fearing exposure to unwelcome attention from the past, have found the most comfortable neighborhood anyone could ask for.

Without the convenience of email, online billpay, and access to the business of selling ebooks, I could no doubt find a way to survive for a brief period of time. But without my friends, it will be hard to get through even a day. Who will I tell how grateful I am for the generosity of the human spirit surrounding us as we deal with our struggles? Who will remind me how fortunate we are compared to so many others? Where will I find a joke to laugh at, or a sweet baby to ooh over, or an adorably silly puppy or kitten to make me smile? And where will I find the warmth of comforting words at the end of one of our harder days, or the practical solution I couldn't see for myself through the fog of simple weariness?

By now you get the picture, I'm sure. I'm living my life in a fantasy world, you say? Don't laugh at me or pity me. The community I've found there is as true and real as any I've known in all the places I've lived through the years. I'd never have believed it possible, but there it is. People are much the same everywhere, but this many friends in one place is rare. Only through the magic of the internet and something we could never have imagined called social media, can so many like minded but still very individual people come together. I have collected a circle of other writers and creative minds, as well as loyal readers, old friends from times past, and just folks who reached out to me for whatever reason. I could never have met all these people in one town or had the time to form friendships that would last no matter where I moved next. I'm living my life in the company of virtual strangers who have proven to be precisely the kind of friends I needed at this time. How amazingly, impossibly wonderful is that?

So for now, I'll say so long. I'll see you all in a week or so. In the meantime, give some thought to the community of virtual strangers you share your life with, and if you're as fortunate as I've been, tell them how much they mean to you.

Happy 25th to Us!!!

I can't resist sharing with you here that today is a real milestone in our marriage. Twenty-five years ago, on what started out as a dreary Saturday morning, John and I took what turned out to be the best few steps of our lives. We'd both done this before, with some success and ultimately with sad failure. We weren't young, but we might have been foolish to think we could make it work. Blending a family of grown daughters with families of their own and teenagers on the brink of leaving the nest, we knew there would be challenges. But we knew we loved each other and the idea of not taking this second chance seemed much like casting that gift aside without regard for the Giver.

Here we are twenty-five years later, still with plenty of challenges, but secure in the knowledge that we took the right path that morning. I knew marriage, with all its ups and downs, but I'd never known Christian marriage. For us, the inclusion of a third partner has made all the difference in the way we love one another, and the way we count our blessings.
Celebrate with us as we toast with iced tea and eat our icebox chocolate pie tonight! Life is rich, depending on how you measure your assets. We are wealthy beyond measure in each other and the things that matter most to us.

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 Smashwords – Hearts Unfold--Miracle at Valley Rise Book 1 – a book by Karen Welch

Still alive--if not quite kicking!

I'm going to keep this brief, because who wants the gory details of another person's medical woes? Suffice to say that my summer was pretty much taken up with a nasty little tumor. I'd known there was a problem for a couple of years, so I take the blame for letting it go so long. I was kind of wrapped up in my husband and his big event of last summer (I'll refer to the posts of June through August of last year if you missed them.) It hardly seemed fair for me to get bad news of the medical variety, too, so I waited. To wrap this up, my tumor was malignant, but of a very slow growing variety (see, I knew I had time on my side!) The doctor is sure it's all gone, but we'll check every three months to be sure.

If you've dealt with medical issues, specifically of the provider sort, you know that nothing is cheap and everybody wants their share of your pie. I was well aware of the financial consequences the day John was taken several hundred miles by ambulance. His bills swamped us, along with the loss of my part-time income. After all, there wasn't anyone else to take care of him, plus the hotel where I'd worked for 9 years was sold the week I was by John's bedside at the University of Kansas hospital. Everyone lost their job. Some were rehired, but since I knew I wouldn't be able to work for the foreseeable future, there was no chance I'd be included in that number. In the course of a week, we were upside down budget wise.

Anyway, by now you get the picture. We were deep in the hole before my little issue, so now we're better off looking down than up. Don't get me wrong. People have been generous. We'd be worse off otherwise. But the pile of bills far exceeds anything I'd expect friends and family to help with. We did try to refinance the house, but our debt to income ratio was already too far gone. So, now what?

I never give up hope, whatever the crisis. So many are in this particular boat with us, we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We just want to dig out of this the best way we can.

I had a bright idea this weekend, which I'm going to share here too. My book sales have suffered from lack of an advertising budget, which is now absorbed by our regular bills. I've tried some new things, which look promising, but then it occurred to me that in this day of fund raising for everything from travel to funeral to pet surgery expenses, I might use my books to do something similar. I put together a post for FB and crossed my fingers that no one would be offended. It goes like this--

"I may be going over the edge here--but you're my friends, right? I've shared our woes with you since last year when John fell, and you've given us your wonderful support and prayers.
I see sites like Go Fund Me set up to benefit everything from student trips abroad to living expenses for cancer patients. So many honest requests for the more fortunate to share with the less. Though at the moment I certainly qualify as one of the less, I'm not prepared to go that far. I still have faith that we'll work our way out of this.
HOWEVER, this morning in the ongoing effort to balance too many bills with too little income, I had a crazy thought. IF EACH OF MY 444 FRIENDS HERE BOUGHT ONE OF MY BOOKS (all priced at less than $3 on Amazon) two months from now I'd be able to bring all our bills current with a little to spare. If you've read this far, thank you. If you're able to help in this way, bless you."

People are truly amazing, aren't they? I had no idea what kind of response, if any, I'd get. But right away, I could see how generous my "friends" can be. That alone, without the income from the sales, gave me even more reason to keep digging. 

So I'm posting this here, in case anyone is still following me. What can it hurt, right? 
If you're interested, the link to my Amazon page is below. All the titles are available through Amazon, and most are also published on SmashWords, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and Kobo. Just search my name and you'll get to them. Thanks for reading!! Comments welcome!
 http://www.amazon.com/Karen-Welch/e/B007ILHX90/ref=ntt_dp_epwb
 
P.S. By the way, a little update on John--He was told in January he'd never walk without assistance again. Guess what? He proved them wrong! His leg is strong enough now, but pain in his lower back won't allow him to stand for more than two minutes. The theory is that with all the hardware in his leg, his gait is off, etc. He's going through a series of injections now, so we're hoping! And of the bills are still coming! Such is life!