December, 2011
JKBooks
Story Sparks

"Stories are the sparks that light our ancestor's lives, the embers we blow on to illuminate our own"

 

ChristmasTree2011

 

Greetings!  

 

Good friends have made our Christmas special this year. Mike and Marea Stone own a tree farm in Salem, Oregon and this year they wanted us to have one of their trees.  What they gave us is a Turkish Fir tree.  The seeds came from Armenia which makes a wonderful  connection to the land of Jesus' birth:  a Middle Eastern tree. A friend of theirs delivered it over the Cascade Mountains to arrive at our door step.  

 

"Who grows a tree from seed?"  our neighbor asked as we admired the five foot tree.   Our friends do. "And how long does it take?" A very long time.

           

Appreciating the care it took to bring that tree to this height is part of the gift of this season.

           

Another friend painted an ornament she sent us.  This is the fifth ornament she's gifted us with.  She lives in an even more remote part of Oregon than where we once lived and perhaps the long winters are made easier by her artistry.  To get the ornament to us, knowing we'd moved but having lost the address, she called the Wasco Variety and Video store in Wasco, a small town not far from our ranch.  There are new store owners there now who didn't know where we'd moved to but our granddaughter happened to be in the store at the time.  She sent the artist to her mom for the address and voila!  Our gift arrived. One of the joys of small towns.

           

Even though we've moved closer to suburbia, there are still lovely small town joys to celebrate this season.  One neighbor brought cookies; another gluten-free cupcakes; another promised to clear our driveway of snow and even though they're in Hawaii for two weeks, they've arranged for someone else to drive the snow plow should the neighborhood be deluged with snow.  I've made my batch of cracker jacks and delivered them around.

           

We sent oysters from Willapa Bay to my brother's family in Minnesota -- they love them!  And he and his wife have home grown chickens on the way to Oregon.  We send books and canned tuna to friends in Wisconsin; they send us maple syrup and dried cherries.  I hadn't thought of these exchanges as traditions but they seem to have evolved that way.

           

This year we decided to also send gifts "in the name of" for my literary connections -- editors, agents, etc.  That way we're helping a village in Guatemala, part of a three year commitment of our church to a community there, building homes, building smokeless stoves, sponsoring education and making trips to do hands-on work.  Several people have given gifts in our name to women's shelters, veterans needs and hunger projects and it's great.  We really don't need more "things." 

           

Tomorrow we'll have a party at school for the English Language Learner kids where I've spent an hour each week this past term.  I've got cookies ready to go!  And the ornament I picked from the tree to help families in need read "a toy for a three year old girl."  I remembered my days at the Early Childhood Center and I think we found the perfect gift:  dress up shoes and tiaras.  That little girl will be a princess.

           

We trim our tree with ornaments meant to represent experiences that capture the essence of the year.  One year we bought two colorful tin ornaments from Mexico to commemorate a visit there.  In 1985 house ornaments appeared as a reminder that it was the year we built our home on the ranch. We hang little airplane ornaments (1980, the year we bought our small plane); and I think there were medical ornaments to remind us of the year of accident in the plane (1986).  Several precious ones were made by a Swedish friend and hand painted by her.

           

Jane,Jerry,Bo&Caesar
Bo, Jerry, Caesar and Jane

We'll be spending the day of Christmas (and a few days before and after) with Jerry's daughter in tropical Florida and in between Christmas and New Years Eve see Jerry's son and family back in Wasco.  Maybe we'll even go out to the ranch and spend the night. The dogs would love that! Whatever your Christmas traditions are, Jerry and I hope you fold them into your memories and that all those memories will nourish and transform.

In This Issue
To Do Lists
Word Whisperings: Border Songs
Jane's Schedule
Lilac Events
Beachside Writers

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To Do Lists
  

ToDoListI once read of this study at the Harvard Medical School where people with asthma and arthritis were asked to spend 20 minutes, three times a week writing down their stories.  Who was driving them crazy, what committee they'd never work on again, how they felt about spending the morning with their best friend. They didn't have to show their words to anyone or come to any conclusions.  A control group with the same symptoms spent the same amount of time but- their writing consisted of "to do" lists. 

           

At the end of the trial period, there was a clinically significant reduction in the amount pain medication needed and the number of asthmatic attacks for the people who told themselves their stories.  For the to-do list people?  Absolutely no change.  I've always said those list people lied because when I look at my "to do" list, I want more pain medication. And this is the season for those to do lists, right?

           

Another kind of list might bring you a necessary diversion from the chaos that can define this season. You might visit the archives of American Art where there are a  number of fascinating lists.  Grocery lists of famous people, artists lists of their work, sketch lists which are all part of an exhibit called the art of listmaking at the Lawrence A. Flesichman Gallery in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. http://www.aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/lists

           

My personal favorite is Oscar Bluemner's  Illustrated list of works of art, 1932, May 18 that is really a work of art in itself. 

        

I've promised myself that this Christmas Season that for every list I make for things to buy or do, I will take the same amount of time to write down my story and maybe even revisit that art collection.  That way I'll be doing healing work.  I suspect that if those "to do" listers of the Harvard Study had put together creative lists like some of those artists, that perhaps those twenty minutes, three times a week to-do listers would be as healed as those writing down their stories.

Word Whisperings
 

Border Songs by Jim Lynch (Random House, 2010). www.jimlynchbooks.com

Each year I discover a book that I want to buy several copies of to give to friends.  This year I had two:  To Die For by Sandra Byrd - highlighted earlier this year; and Border Songs by Jim Lynch.  Jim is a northwest author and journalist now living in Olympia, Washington. The border he writes about is not the southern border of the USA but the northern one with Canada.  His protagonist is a giant of a man who I suspect has Asperger's Syndrome and who is also a border patrol agent.  He has a passion for birds and remembers details of them and he has an uncanny knack for stumbling upon smugglers, drug dealers, and other a sundry characters trying to cross the border.  Mix in his father, a local dairyman; a retired professor living across the border who puts up fascinating signs expressing his current political point of view; a massage therapist who is perhaps writing a book?  Or maybe just making a video?  And a young woman in search of herself within a Northwest landscape that is richly conveyed.  The language is beautiful, the images distinctive, the emotion authentic.  Both of Jim's books have been adapted for the stage and if you're in the Seattle area, you could even attend a performance this season!  His earlier book, The Highest Tide, is also a must read and it became a huge bestseller in the United States and the United Kingdom.  Both titles have won numerous awards and they are well-deserved.

               

Border Songs made me laugh out loud and tear up when I least expected.  Jerry had to hear me read different paragraphs because the words are feasts for the ear as well as the eye. I was lost inside this story and when I finished it, I wanted to start again because I know I missed some of the exquisite detail that this author has woven into a heartwarming story of love in its many facets.  But I also didn't want to leave the border community that Jim created with such authenticity.  I will never again cross the border into Canada near Blaine without thinking of Jim Lynch with admiration.  A winner!  Read it soon as Jim has a new novel due in April and I've already pre-ordered it from my local independent bookstore!  You'll want to do that too.

Jane's Schedule
 

December begins my focused writing time.  There are no public events scheduled until Beachside Writers in March.  Visit my website to learn more about this fabulous weekend that inspires the instructors (award-winning columnist and author Bob Welch) and myself.  I'll also do a one night presentation at the Willamette  Heritage Center at the Mill in Salem, OR about the quilting women of Aurora.  Watch my website for details on both events.  Otherwise, I'll welcome your good wishes for my writing life to finish up the novel that will be due in April but not come out until April of 2013 and a devotional I'm working on called The Promise of Spring.

 

National poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks words are a reminder of how  we can be engaged in the most basic of ways:  "I smile when I see people coming," she wrote. That's something I can do this year.  It's a gift I can give to myself where action precedes emotion.  May smiles find you often this season and in the new year.

Lilac Events
WhereTheLilacs 

I've just completed the final edits for Where Lilacs Still Bloom.  I hope you'll enjoy this book about a remarkable woman and her passion for lilacs.  Please consider joining us in Woodland, Washington (just north of Vancouver) on Friday, April 20 for a special presentation.  There are two times requiring reservations which can be made by contacting Judy Card at [email protected] or by sending your $35 and choice of time (either 10 or 1)to HKLG Speical Event,%Judy Card, PO Box 1861, Woodland, WA 98674.  You'll receive a copy of the book, a tour of the house (Open the day before the official opening) and me!  I'll be making a presentation about the research and the life of Hulda Klager and how her generous spirit changed the lives of many.  Think of it as a great Christmas gift...or an early Mother's Day excursion.

Beachside Writers

BeachsideEach year  at Beachside Writers is a treasure, whatever the weather. It's an inspirational weekend for the instructors and the class which is limited to 50 people.  We have repeaters!  The food is phenomenal and the video shows a portion of the ambience that says to each attendee, "You are special, you are a writer and we are so glad that you're here!"

 

You can join us in 2012. March 3-5 at Yachats, Oregon. Consider our gathering as a Christmas present for the would-be writer in your life -- including yourself.  Registration is at www.bobwelch.net.  (Note the NET!)

Beachside Writers 2012
Beachside Writers 2012

 

 You can also access this video at http://www.jkbooks.com  or http://vimeo.com/31385176

 


 

Jerry and I are hoping you'll find the perfect way to celebrate your Christmas this year by giving, receiving, and giving again. We were all gifted with the presence of God among us in the form of a child reminding us that we can celebrate Christmas every day of the year.  What better way to begin than on December 25th with thanksgiving. 

 

 Merry Christmas to you all!

Warmly,
Jane Kirkpatrick