
JUGGLE-O-RAMA



I find that particularly during the season of cold and ice, I need to find something to keep me busy that is productive but does not involve the structured planning side of my brain.

I need time everyday to just let my mind run wild, free from the constraints of schedule, housework, meetings, ministry and the needs of people.

I find such time in prayer.

Prayer for me is becoming an exercise in waiting on the Lord for inspiration. I do pray for people and things in my prayer time, but a vast amount of my time is spent sitting in the presence of the Lord listening to His Scripture and waiting on Him to tell me what He will. This I am coming to believe is the genesis of my creativity.
I also find the space of recreative freedom in reading.

I am learning to break my reading into two categories….Story and Improvement.
Improvement reading is the reading I do for work: It includes leadership books, ministry manuals, reports etc. I love this type of reading but it is decidedly not something that sets my mind free. This kind of reading creates the structures I need to be successful at work. I am just starting a new book called, LEADING CHANGE.
![Leading Change, With a New Preface by the Author by [John P. Kotter]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41a2i1XdzzL.jpg)
The type of reading that I need to do to set my mind to run wild and free is story. I have worked my way through several stories this year….


And the one I am currently reading….

But reading is not enough to truly set my mind free from the shackles the world creates for it.
Prayer leads me to creating something of my own from the depths of my own soul to offer the world.
Sometimes this comes out as sketches.

Sometimes it comes out as photography….

Most often it comes out as the written word, here in a blog or in a story or a poem of my own.
I heard from my editor this week and she said the edits for my upcoming book, PORK CHOPS WITH THE SENTINELS OF AZATAN are on target to be completed by early spring.
That book has been my creative outlet for several years and now it is about to enter the organization phase. I am sensing that as I subject this work to the publication process, I also have to prepare myself a new outlet for the creative side of my being.
I am already praying about it.
I have not been able to get here to SHARE MY WORLD for the last several weeks. But I am nearly finished with the edits on my book, and so this week I thought I would spend some time catching up with everyone here in the blogosphere and on social media.
I am so grateful that Melanie keeps this challenge running. By answering her questions we all get to share our worlds and build community! Thank you Melanie! Below are this week’s questions and my answers. To find out more about this sharing challenge please click the underlined link above and go to Melanie’s site.

QUESTIONS
What would you enjoy if you could do so without someone getting annoyed with you for enjoying it? It MUST be something you aren’t supposed to enjoy because it is “bad for you”.
OK this is totally cultural having to do with my branch of Christianity, but if it wasn’t considered inappropriate for my station I would probably really enjoy going to dances….That said I am a horrible dancer so while I might enjoy it I don’t think anyone would enjoy watching it.
Is it okay for men to wear the color pink?
Sure. We just call it salmon.
Can you curl your tongue?

What, in your opinion, is the best room to put a fireplace?
The family room.
GRATITUDE SECTION (As always, OPTIONAL)

How do you show your gratitude?
Actually I am trying to be more intentional with this because I am not naturally “gratitudinous”. I am starting by making a list, checking it twice and then sending a message, a letter or a phone call. I am trying to do this weekly starting at Thanksgiving throughout the year.

I am getting a bit of a jump on things this week and I am SHARING MY WORLD WITH MELANIE
AND I AM SHARING MY WORLD WITH ROGER.
This is the challenge where Melanie and Roger have joined forces to ask us question that help us to share our worlds with all of our readers. Here we go!
Melanie’s Ordinary Muggle Questions:
What ingredients go into YOUR favorite salad? I like to make tossed salads with lettuce, nasturtium, tomato, cucumber, celery, mushrooms and grapes. I also like cheese and croutons but I don’t often put them in.
If you care to, share something that really irritates you.
poison ivy.
What are your favorite ‘lounging around the house’ items of clothing? Now that a lot of people ‘lounge around the house’ waiting for the all clear in respect to Covid being shown the door, have those lounging items changed?
I like to wear my plaid pajama pants and a tee shirt. As the nights get colder I will add a sweater or my big maroon bathrobe.
GRATITUDE (as always this is optional)
Please feel free to share something about Autumn (or Spring if you’re gearing up for that) that you especially enjoy!

My sister has been working at an apple orchard for the last few weeks helping some folks from church bring in the harvest. She brings home a bag of apples everyday. I have gotten to bake a lot!
This post is created in response to LINDA HILL’S ONE-LINER WEDNESDAY CHALLENGE FOR 9-2-20.

It is time to SHARE MY WORLD WITH HARRY POTTER, SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND, AND ROGER SHIPP.
OR WITH ROGER SHIPP, SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND AND HARRY POTTER.
Now either of those links will get you to the sites that brainstormed this marvelous challenge. But before you go to see how they thought of this great idea and how others have used it for their writing, check out the questions below and my answers.

Roger’s Magical, Mystical Questions:
Muggle Questions (from Melanie):
What is the last song you sang along to?
What was your scariest nightmare about?
I don’t generally get nightmares. Many of my dreams though are very disturbing. My most recent disturbing dream was a bout a white stag with red and blue flnaks being hunted in a misty forest by a red orange and yellow lion.
What food do you crave most often?
Italian food. I could eat it almost every night.
What’s your grossest bug story?
The grossest bug experience I ever went through was the gypsy moth infestation back in the 1980’s. There were so many of the bugs they were falling out of the trees. It sounded like it was raining. But you couldn’t walk under the trees without getting them in your hair or on your clothes.
Well it is that time again. For the last several weeks and continuing on through this week and on for a few more, Melanie From “Sparks From A Combustible Mind” will be teaming up with Roger Shipp of “It’s All In Finding the Right Words”, to produce SHARE YOUR WORLD MEETS HARRY POTTER OR HARRY POTTER MEETS SHARE YOUR WORLD depending on which blog you are reading. My suggestion is to read them both when you have finished reading my responses to them.
HERE ARE THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS AND MY ANSWERS:

Share Your World Meets Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Muggle Questions (of a more philosophical bent this week):
Is intelligence or wisdom more useful? Intelligence without wisdom is pretty darn useless.
How important is play in living a healthy and fulfilling life? For most people play is absolutely essential to leading a healthy life. It is part of the great balance. That said, play means different things to different people. What is play to me is not much fun for other people and I find what most other people call play a lot of work.
Is happiness just chemicals flowing through your brain or something more? Happiness is chemicals. Joy is a spiritual quality that goes far beyond happy.
GRATITUDE SECTION (Always optional)

Feel free to share some photos, an image, a meme, a story or incident or a poem that helps you feel grateful.
I heard my second grand daughter’s heart beat for the first time yesterday!
This is week two of the SHARE YOUR WORLD and ROGER SHIPP mash up which we are calling SHARE YOUR WORLD MEETS HARRY POTTER…OR …HARRY POTTER SHARES HIS WORLD…OR HARRY POTTER’S SHARED WORLD…OR…well I guess you can call it whatever you want.
Here are this week’s questions from Roger and Melanie respectively. Use the underlined portkeys above to get to their sites after you have read my answers.
Share Your World Meets Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Mundane or “Muggle” Questions:
(Serious one which is rather creepy): How do you think you’ll die? IF you do think about it? I really have no idea. Maybe I won’t. Maybe Jesus will come and “rapture” me home before I drop.
What’s the best on-line screen name you’ve seen? “Best might mean the oddest. I really like SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND.
What’s invisible that you wish people could see?
GOD. I do believe this will happen eventually.
If over time you replace parts on a car, at what point does it stop being the same car you bought? How many parts do you need to replace to make it a new car?
This is like that tootsie roll question right? The answer of course is the same…Three.
….errr I mean 9,000.
This post is created in response to CEE’S BLACK & WHITE CHALLENGE FOR THIS WEEK ABOUT SHORT THINGS


