Is your heart really where your time is spent?

On numerous occassions lately I have heard people state that your treasure is where your heart is or your heart lies where you spend your time and I totally agree in most instances with these statements, but so often I find myself doing things which I wish I didn't have to and yet they are done because they are required. I mean who ever said to themselves "yes today I am going to clean the toilet because I love to do it!" If you have please see your nearest health professional, it's just not right! The general notion though of having something so important to you that your heart and time are entwined with it is not a new one infact it has been the basis of most romance novels and movies for years. The less commercially attractive but equally realistic version of this would also be your family and friendships as I am sure most of us would prefer to spend time with our nearest and dearest more often than we do, for most of us this is not a chore but a joy. Sometime I guess we do these things that we don't want to for those people in our lives we care about and other times maybe we should just learn to say the big NO! On the weekend a very wise young man talked to us about our idols, not the crazy gem encrusted things from tv but the things that take our time and efforts away from what should be our main focus. Things like our jobs, sports,shopping, clubs, t.v, facebook, internet etc Each of these things can distract and take us away from the more important roles in our lives which for me is my faith in God, my family, my friends and my writing. For you it maybe different things but the model still remains the same. If we let distraction and the love of these lesser things become more important maybe even enough to take over; then those we love and eventually ourselves are the ones that will suffer for it. If you get the chance to check out the preach Brian Sumners Sunday 30th October at Nowra City Church it rocked! For me it's all about perspective as a Christian, wife, mother, daughter, friend and writer. As long as I keep my perspective of what is really important in my life then I should be just fine, hope you can all do the same too; just imagine what a fabulous world that would be. Have a wonderful Day! Isobial :)

A very challenging question.....

Wow another crazy weekend over! Dinners out and birthday parties have mean't our long weekend flew leaving us with a now semi-peaceful house in much need of sorting! But before we get onto that we really wanted to write a post today discussing some interesting topic's. On Sunday our senior Pastor Peter Pilt asked "what can't you live without?" as part of his sermon. It was a very challenging service and we highly recommend you checking it out on the Nowra City Church website if you get a chance. So like most people sitting there I answered in my head. What was odd for me was the fact there wasn't much materially I couldn't imagine myself coping without if I had too; my faith and my family were the main things. Now whether this is because for six weeks at the beginning of the year we had to live without much due to our oversea's move. Definately having to evaluate everything in our house,garage, offices etc for shipping it has helped us place less value on possessions . I really did hug my washing machine when it came off the truck! I guess in truth the fact that we were all here together safe and released from a lot of stresses back in our former home it just made the lack of stuff easier to deal with. So for the last day I have been pondering Sunday's question and I have come up with another question which I think is harder to answer "what define's you?" When it comes down to it what is it that makes you the person you are? Do you change to suit your environment? From a writers perspective this is an imperitive question as we reflect so much of ourselves into what we create on the page. Not just in storyline or characterisation but in our research, ethics and storyline. When we create our characters we must have an answer for this question, they must become like real people for readers to truly engage and empathise with them. I can honestly say if I closed my eyes and pictured many of my main characters in various situations I would know what their convictions would be, their behaviour response, attitude, even the tone of their speech. In that sense if I didn't fully understand what defined them as characters how could I ever write them to their full potiential? They would be shallow concepts and unbelievable to readers as their convictions would be interchangable, with no defining elements to their personalities what so ever. So whether fictional or in reality I think "what defines you?" is a very important question. Isobial :)

Patience...patience..patience!

I am trying so hard to be patient but waiting for my manuscript to return from being reviewed and edited is driving me crazy! Every motor bike is the mail man, every noise is the courier, every phone call is the possibility they are calling. Well you get the drift! It could become all consuming if I didn't realise that no matter how much I worry, stress or anticipate the outcome it will not change the fact it will get here when it gets here. Now I know how donkey felt on Shrek though "are we there yet? are we there yet?" the most annoying words on the planet for most parents! After many years of practise I have become a slightly more patient person, but like many family members before me I am a doer so I struggle with times of waiting or idleness. Now I could just keep ploughing through the next chapters in the follow up novel to The Gift and yes I am working on it but the distraction of waiting is ever present. Pastor Lynley from our church Nowra City Church spoke so well on this Sunday morning. In a world where everything is so immediate and at our finger tips the idea of waiting for anything from food to a txt response is seen as too hard. I might also add our mentality to things being so easily disposable is also appalling but that's a whole other rant! Well for me right now it is tough bikkies because the only option is to wait so I will try to follow the good teaching from Sunday and work on my patience muscles for a little bit longer; exhaustive school holiday activity will definately help. It's all good training in the end and don't they say "good things come to those who wait" Hopefully that saying included writers! If you want to check out the great sermon on Sunday morning from Pastor Lynley check out the Nowra City Church website, it will definately give you a good laugh too! Have a brilliant patience filled day! Isobial :)

Welcome

Hi and welcome!
I hope you enjoy visiting this site as we continue to add snippits of the soon to be released novel "The Gift" Notes on how to start writing your first book from someone who's just done it and we may even tempt you to join in discussions on writing,Christianity,coffee obsession basically life in general!

Bless you!
Isobial :)