I Am Surprised

I Am Surprised

By John W. Vander Velden

When I stand where I stand and look about my world, surveying my place in it all, I am left wondering.  If I take the time to consider all my successes and failures, I find myself surprised at the place I find myself...today.

I understand that step by step, forward and backward as well, my journey has shaped me into who I have become.  Along the way I have always felt it my obligation to take my advances with humility while accepting responsibility for my failings, for I understand that I am but human.  Acknowledging that if I have any talents at all, they are the results of gifts given for my use by a power far beyond me.  While honestly recognizing my weakness helps me to accept mistakes made by others.  And so I tend to judge those around me less harshly than I judge myself. 

Yet when I survey where I stand...today...I am surprised.

Though I often dwell on all the unfulfilled aspirations, the years spent with only modest progress, I need to stop and look at the whole of it.   For if I consider the things I have done, the places I have seen, the work I have accomplished, the people I have met...I am astonished.

So I look forward and cannot know what lies ahead, but if what lies behind is any indication, when I scan the place I will stand one day in the future...I will be surprised...

For my GOD has brought me this far, and HE will carry me through all my tomorrows...that that won’t surprise me a bit.

9-22-2018 (269 Words)  

Elizabeth's Journey an Update

 

 

There are those that do their best work when facing a deadline.  Some who need a target to drive them to get the work done.  I am not among those folks

When “Misty Creek” was released I set a timetable for the completion of the sequel, “Elizabeth’s Journey”, 18 months.  I had a draft and was well into the first revise believing that goal was easily attainable…Silly me.  But life has too many demand and the work required was far more than I anticipated.

When the revised draft returned from my editor, I was surprised by the thousands of comments, many positive, but most raising questions I had not asked myself.  Just because I understood the character’s motivation does not mean it is clear to the reader.  I had expected to finish this revise in four months…September 5^th.

Well it is September 5^th and to put it mildly the revision is not finished.  In truth I am happy that I have reached halfway through that endeavor.  But the revision is not the final work required.  Though there is much left to do before I have molded earlier drafts into the final, progress is being made.  For those that have read “Misty Creek” and long for the next part of Elizabeth’s story I ask for patience.  I must strive to my best to make “Elizabeth’s Journey” a worthy sequel.

So for all of you that have read “Misty Creek” or are friends of this author, I have decided to give you updates, weekly when possible.  So stay tuned....