A Time For Everything

 Sometimes, well most times, we don’t know when will be the right time for something or even someone.  We can plan a thousand times how we’ll do something or what we’ll say and do when we meet that special someone.  We may even struggle to get that thing going because it just seems to be taking too long to happen and then one day, seemingly out of the blue it all falls into place; that out of reach thing happens and that special someone - more special than anyone you’ve ever met before - comes along and just like that it all falls into place and as Aunt Bess said in Etched, “There is a time for everything and all things are done in God’s time not ours.” 

Thank you God for your impeccable timing.

Today is one such day. This is God’s time and I feel blessed to be in it. I’ve started to work on my second novel—Lineage. Lineage is the continuation of Etched.  In Lineage the stories of eight more generations will unfold.  I have more than a vague idea how these stories will unfold since Lineage is a part of the original 900 page single-spaced manuscript that was Etched. In Etched we had Aunt Bess our Griot who told us the story of: Cornbread, Molasses, Milkweed, Harold Joe, Neela, Tember, Beauford, Fields, Litchfield, Matthew and Hamilton. In Lineage there will be a new Griot, a new antagonist and of course every good drama needs a protagonist. Our history had and has its share of both so in Lineage, undoubtedly, both will surface; they must—it’s our history.

This journey, I know will be different.  Like any other experience I’ve gone through I’ve learned.  Some of the lessons I didn’t get the first time because I was unaware or pretended that they weren’t lessons and therefore I failed to get the lesson the first time. I’ve had to repeat many of life lessons over and over to the point where I’ve earned an advanced degree in Life Lessons.  God was kind to me and He stopped me before I earned a PhD in stupid.  I now try very quickly to recognize that what I’m experiencing is a Life Lesson and try to grasp the lesson quickly so I won’t have to do a repeat. Along the way though I’ve learned that sometimes you don’t get a repeat. That lesson is presented only one time and if you screw it up you’ve screwed it up and you must go on.  Sometimes people are taken away before you can ‘fix’ what you screwed up and there’s no way (other than with much prayer) to say you are sorry or I’m sorry I (or you as is sometimes the case) screwed things up when you were here.  However difficult those lessons have been (or are) you go on…the alternative is not an option; well not for me anyway.
On my journey to becoming a published writer I learned many lessons. There were times when this Etched journey was an emotional roller coaster with no visible Fairground Operator at the control.  My ride was bumpy and at times it looked as if a derailment was imminent but Grace and Mercy stepped in and gently guided my out of control roller coaster to cruise and then stop.  I got off with an amazing book that I’m so very proud that I clung to the proverbial rail of that roller coaster.

Thank you God for Grace and Mercy!

The lessons I learned as I screamed, hollered and cried for assistance (very little to none came) have stayed with me.  I now know that if no human assistance comes I just have to hold on.  That God, in His perfect wisdom and timing is working it out and as He said in Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for you.”  He did not say that He would share them with me.  He said, “For I know…”  That knowledge that He knows what plans He has for me sustains me.

I’m ready and now I’m prepared.

I am so ready that I’ll also be returning to school to finish my MBA as I unfold Lineage. Yes, I’m brave like that.  I’m half-way through my program and it is my hope that by the time I’m holding a copy of Lineage (book or nook) that I’ll also hold my degree in my other hand…for He knows the plans He has for me.

Etched started the journey and as Etched unfolded they were many questions unanswered I must once again become a knowledge seeker.  I will not take this new journey lightly.  I will welcome each ancestor who chooses to be a spirit guide for me.  Etched was a gift and so as the journey continues in Lineage, so too, I believe, will the guiding spirits of my ancestors.  I will ask of them all the questions I need to ask just as I did when I embarked on my Etched journey.  

I will take nothing for granted.  I will refrain from approaching this story as though it were mine to tell.  It is not. The ancestors have chosen me to be the vessel by which this story gets told and so I will ask. I will wait. I will be receptive and I will be graciously humble for each gift that is imparted to me.

And so, once again I’ve returned to the very place where I wrote Etched.

I am sitting at my dining room table facing my own garden oasis where enough of the sky can be seen through my three windows to allow me to see the unfolding of the days and as I embrace this Lineage journey, I’m sure, eventually, I’ll see the seasons change too.  I am comfortable with that.  There is no need to rush. They ancestors have waited all this time until I was ready to hear, obey and write.  They are not going to rush me now and not have it be told properly.

I and they will wait.

I've gotten used to fresh cut flowers on my table.  They satisfy my soul.

The view when I look up and over the lap top.

The whole view.  My books with my notes to my left, pen and paper to my right and in the middle...

And so, for now, just the nearness of my own tropical garden, my garden of Eden/Paradise or whatever name I choose it will be there for me I look up, when my mind wonders, or when my eyes need a little break from staring at the screen of my lap top.  I’ll take my mini vacations in my miniature paradise, do my mental and spiritual strolling among the healthy green leaves and with the back-drop of sheer cream voile and satin-trimmed curtains I’ll be at peace.  The curtains are sheer enough to let the light (wisdom) in and just thick enough to keep out prying eyes.

And so the journey continues…Lineage.

An Etched heart cannot be fully satisfied until all its desires are met.  Will the Etched hearts of the ancestors be fully satisfied when Lineage is complete? 

Time; God’s time will reveal.