Home Again

Well I can say with out a shadow of a doubt you can go home again! Flying into Auckland Airport and seeing the lights over the city had tears welling in both myself and hubby's eyes; we are home. It is funny how much familiarity and weird little things like the smell of a place can make you feel instantly relaxed and at home. We don't have to think two or three words ahead to make sure the people we are speaking to will understand and we know where we are going which is a huge bonus! More than that though the joy of seeing loved ones we haved pined for all year bouncing and cheering on the other side of the barrier was so sweet! All those in jokes and casual conversations slip back into play with an effortless ease and you know for that very short period of a holiday, you truly are home again. I hope where ever you are for Christmas, you travel safe and feel the joy of share such an amazing time of year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from one very happy kiwi girl! Isobial xxoo

Validation

Christmas..Christmas...Christmas

Yes I am one of those crazy people that absolutely LOVE Christmas! An the count down is on in our house. It's genetic so I can honestly say I had no choice in the matter, but who cares when it is such a cool time of year! I have to admit the last few weeks my writing has struggled to compete with the growing excitement of decorating the tree and covering my house in tinsel and lights! I love everything about Christmas, the shopping, the decorating, the cooking and especially the holidays! This year we will be going home in the very true sense of the word and the whole house is buzzing with four very excited Kiwi's! I know a lot of people spout stuff about Christmas being just about presents and spending money and yeah I get that some people look at it that way but in my family we have always done the most amazing family things at Christmas; often travelling oversea's to visit rellies or spending the day as a family doing stuff we all enjoyed so for me the presents are just a nice side issue. My other favorite memories have always come from spending Christmas in church, now people can spout all they want at me about Christians taking over Christmas but HELLO get a clue people the whole reason for Christmas is the celebration of Jesus being born...you know the ultimate gift! If you have that part confused get yourselves a Bible, check out the New testament it's pretty basic stuff! I can't tell you how awesome it is to watch little kids perform the story or standing in candle light singing the carols, absolutely love it! This year heading back over the ditch to our nearest and dearest will be the best present we could ask for; but our absolute best present ever is knowing God loved us enough to send his son as a tiny baby, watch him grow and eventually let him make the ultimate sacrifice on the cross instead of us just so he could take our sin away and we, if we believe in him could have eternal life! Big WOW! Now no one can argue that's the most amazing gift we could ever receive so why shouldn't Christmas be my favorite time of the year? It's the beginning of the most important story mankind has ever heard. Not fiction either, a true story written down by those closest to him and accounted in many other historical texts thus it has continued to be told and read for so long. I hope where ever you are and what ever you do to celebrate, the real reason for Christmas celebrations doesn't slip past you this year! God Bless! Isobial xxoo

Predictability ain't real life or good fiction!

Apologies people, as you can tell from the title some unexpected events have kept me from updating the blog recently; namely one laptop that first had battery failure an then just plain spazzed out. That plus the sudden demise of my contact lenses had me blind and techno-less. So in all it has been a little trying these last few days but a good reminder that life just like fiction is unpredictable and has it's high mountains mixed up with low valley's. One of the very few benefits of my week of depravity has been the chance to catch up on reading, basically with no computer or vision to speak of it was about my only option! So out came all the books I had been planning to read over the last few months but had put on the back burner. A few Diana Gabaldon ones I wanted to re-read and plenty of Nora Roberts in her other form as J.D Robb. I enjoyed them all of course as reading is pleasure in it's self but what I did start to think about is predictability. Although unlike some people I am very restrained and never jump ahead in books or read last pages, I do tend to analyze and pick the outcome or in some cases the bad guy prior to finishing which for me really ruins the book. It's not something I enjoy at all and honestly I would love to not be able to do it but in some books the predictability just flows until I reach the conclusion far before the actual book is completed. Now with all this reading done, my new contacts in place and the spare computer up and running what has been firing my writing passion is a fierce resolve not inflict the angst of predictability on my readers. So every spare minute these last few days has been fueled with 'brain planning' new twist and plot ideas for my second book, expanding and creating characters who are as diverse as reality and basically fueling the continued hunger to create something I would not only enjoy reading but also find hard to decipher before the ending. It's exciting, challenging and once again invigorating which I guess is why I love this writing thing so much! So for all you would be writers out there or just those doing the journey of life, embrace the lack of predictability in fiction and reality because the only absolutes are we were born and we will die everything else is open waiting to be written or lived!

Is it really all that bad?

I have noticed very recently that whining and whinging has almost become a competitive sport in conversation, usually reserved just for the Poms (I can say that cause I am one) the rest of the globe seems to have caught up. If you say you've had a bad day, theirs was worse or the drama was bigger, more involved and in all cases harder than what you have had to deal with. Even our kids have started this no my problem was worse routine with friends, entertaining for us as what parent doesn't love a good chuckle at the enormity of a tweens life dramas? But on a serious note it astounds me considering how good most of us have it that we can be so blatantly ungrateful. Now yes I am sure there is some truly horrid things happening to some people out there and no you are not to whom I am referring; I'm merely trying to point out to the majority of us who consider the small things disasters, that really we should spend a little more time putting things into perspective before we have the big melt down. One of my favourite movies has this brilliant quote from Angelica Houston "No matter how bad things get they can always get worse my dear" although very negative I have often thought of it when something crap has happened and I needed to deal with it. Lets face it whether we moan and whinge about something or not it still has to be dealt with and there may well be something even worse around the corner but it is our character and the excercise of just getting on with it that inevitably pull us through not how much we talk about it and drag ourselves down. Perspective is often the key to sucess and in our characters just like ourselves we must have a reasonable amount of perspective to realistically engage a reader in the problems and walk them through the experience from beginning to end, lets face it most stories have at least a few major problems. Shakespear was full of them! Diana Gaboldan's outlander series is riddled with drama right from the start, Stephanie Meyer's twilight series well it doesn't get much worse than falling in love with someone who wants to eat you does it?Karen Kingsbury, who always makes me cry, I could go on but I won't you get the point I'm sure. Drama and trouble engage's people's attention, thus the reason we all love to share it; but it must have an outcome or it's just annoying noise in real life and in our fiction books. Back to real life for a second I guess the point I'm trying to make is you are not the only one who has walked that walk so look around you at those who have survived, take courage from them and others who have perservered in even harder circumstances. But most importantly "carpe diem, sieze the day" life it too short to spend whinging and moaning, not living! Have a great week people! Isobial :)