Gratitude Inscribed

This year’s Thanksgiving was filled with an abundance of grace. 

I spent the evening of the holiday with my friend Lumena. Our paths crossed last year many times and we have been a part of each other lives ever since. 
I arrived with my homemade apple/raisin crumble to warm hugs and a beautiful smile. The table was adorned with festive autumn decor and her elegant dinnerware all laid out for the two of us.
We shared in a meal of turkey soup, bread, and salad. Lumena had poured us a glass of wine and over dinner we shared memories, made new ones and gave into our bursts of sudden laughter. My dear friend is going through health issues which need prayers. I am there to do all that I can to help her forget...even for a moment about her ordeal. Later, we watched a Christian film and indulged in plates of my crumble, along with a pot of tea. 
Whether we share in cultural events like the Portuguese Festival I took Lumena too, or stand together in church with our arms stretched outward, I am made to feel loved by this woman of faith. 

Later, back at my place, as I near the end of the month and pack up both my belongings and my daughter’s things; I am reminded that the gravity of the earth does not necessarily factor in life spinning off in various directions. 

Despite what seems to others as chaotic disorder, I carry on living it all out as a beautiful mess.

Using the gifts I have, allows me to share parts of myself through an outpouring of words.

One constant principle of my writing is the release it gives me propelling a stockpile of adverbs, nouns and adjectives tethered to communications into the space between — which resonates like a symphony. 

In focusing on what lays ahead, I feel no shame in letting go of the past, in order to revive the maimed heart that has beat inside my soul for 45 years. 

 I am in a chapter of learning; acquiring knowledge from my own personal library of books. I have been reading several at a time, while researching. I gravitate towards documentaries and recently had the chance (for the second time) to hear author John Vaillant speak. Back in March, I met him as he autographed a hardcover copy of “The Golden Spruce,” to me.

My original copy bears the disfigurement of betrayal across its front inscription from “Christian,” a man whose broken key in my heart, left its stain. Despite the defiling, I cherish the tattered copy as a reminder of how I let myself adore another with such fervour; it allowed me in the end to grant ultimate forgiveness. 

At the University of Victoria, I sat in a sold out crowd to see Hadwin’s Judgement — the story of Grant Hadwin whose treachery against the Golden Sitka spruce and the Haida people, resulted in his demise. 

While my first novel of fiction, Under the Sitka Tree, is centered on a magnificent spruce…the original idea was conceived fourteen years ago and inspired by the Three Sisters in Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park and the area of Ocean Falls, B.C.
I highly recommend Mr. Vaillant’s book, as it is a phenomenal read of hard-core truth, expressed on each page of a story that sounds make believe. 

In the past week, I have watched author, speaker and actress (best known for War Room), Priscilla Shirer speak on Gideon and the battle of the 300. She speaks candidly of how my own weaknesses are the opportunity to see God on display. 

In Judges 7: 7  And the LORD said to Gideon, “I will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home.”
Priscilla then asks what is your 300? Whatever that is…then that 300 is all you need.

Another incredible video I watched was actor and faith warrior, Jim Caviezel speak about his own ordeal portraying Christ. I am including his speaking at a church due to his raw emotion in delivering what he has to say. The conclusion is powerful and carries the weight of our world. 

Your name may not APPEAR down here in this world’s hall of fame, in fact you may be so UNKNOWN no one knows your name, the Oscars and the praise may never come your way, but don’t forget God has REWARDS He will hand out some day, this crowd on earth they will soon forget when you’re not at the top, they will cheer like mad until you fall and then their praise will stop, NOT God He never does forget, and in His Hall of Fame by just believing on His Son forever there’s your name. I tell you friend, I wouldn’t trade my name however small, that’s written there beyond the stars in that celestial hall, FOR all the famous names on earth, or the GLORY that they share, I would rather be an unknown here and have my name up there!”

– Jim Caviezel (Actor who portrayed Jesus /Yeshua in The Passion of the Christ) 

https://youtu.be/0Ejaw0F8-sY 

As a writer, my legacy of words strung across the globe will carry on through the channels of social media, yet in the end when I look to the heaven’s and envision my 300…I want to see my name inscribed across the palms of my Creator.

By TL Alton https://www.tlaltondesign.com/