July 4, 2016

Are you listening to give your answer or listening to understand? At a time when political, social, religious, and international tensions are at a height I pondered about a post for today.

Have you ever chatted with an extrovert who is just so excited to be here they can’t shut up or tried to get a word in edgewise with an introvert on a topic they enjoy? We can all get so caught up in what it is we have to say that we forget balance. I am a peaceful person by nature, yet I recognize the need to preserve that peace by force when necessary.

The clash between peace and war and those who only understand one side of either held my thoughts captive as I wrestled with how to really appreciate independence and say thank you to veterans. Though many people have never served in the military most know a loved one or friend who has, and respect the sacrifice requested of them and their families. So, I wanted to talk about something deeper, something that brews beneath and reflects on the tensions alive today.

Are you listening to give your answer—with your own ideas, defenses, proofs, and analogies brimming at the surface or are you listening to understand; do you hear the heart of the speaker with their ideals and confusion, their hurt and their hope? Not every fight requires the force to stop a Hitler, nor will every struggle be resolved by the compassion of a Ghandi, the world is not a Utopia, but in our humanity we must have balance.

Thank you to those who serve in our military: may we as civilians listen and speak, both at home and abroad, with compassion for humanity so that when we ask you to answer with force you can return to a home worth fighting for.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday. Below is the answer to the first Sudoku puzzle and my progress report follows (more for my writing accountability, but feel free to read if you like). Also, the first clue is up at the Riddle Writer page – check it out.

I spent four days on page one of the first chapter of the last chapter. Now, I know that doesn’t make any sense, but when I did the first rewrite the final chapter became two chapters. Therefore, when I decided to start rewrite (2) with the last chapter it really meant focus on the last two chapters. I spent four days on the first page of that next to last chapter (phew), but it was time well spent. I literally refused to let myself move from a sentence till I had precision; sometimes that meant clarification in a world building issue, a character decision, or a timeline marker, but regardless the only thing I let slide was precision in word choice. I made a preference for accuracy in word choice instead of precision, because I wanted to maintain some movement there as I work, but I have a review designated just for that. This is a learning curve so I may find the additional step problematic, but we will see.