A busy life

     After a long period of staying away, I've gone back to church. My absence had more to do with me than with the church. Mostly I was just too busy. Finally a church friend, encouraging me to come back, said sometimes just being there is what the spirit leads us to do.
     Like most of my friends, he knows I always have a lot going on. Case in point: Just today, after we finished a potluck meal, a friend who has always lovingly harassed me about my "active" life said, "Grace, let me ask you a question."
     "Am I going to be embarrassed to answer?" I responded. A lady sitting beside me laughed softly.
     "No." She answered and went on. "At Christmas it was web design and now it's writing. What are you going to do?"
     "Both." I answered. "I'm still taking a web design class and I've started research for a book I want to write." And it is true. It is also true that I am busy. In a good way.
     In the upcoming week, I will interview two local folks who are committed to helping others in their community. One is a volunteer with a meals on wheels program that serves shut in seniors. The other is the director of a local agency that offers services to the homeless and near homeless. I will write articles from both of these interviews and submit them to a local weekly paper. And wait. And hope. And start looking for the next story.
     I will read. I have a rough outline of one novel and seem to have at least one more that fires off some brain neurons from time to time. The first novel has a time span from about 1830-1930. If the second one actually takes shape, it will span the 1700's. So, I am selectively reviewing nearly two hundred years of American history, especially focusing on the American experience of emigration from the East Coast to the West. Right now, I am reading  Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America by Marilyn Irvin Holt, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, and book five in the Harry Potter series. 
     On Tuesday night, I will go to class. I will learn all about type fonts (again). This time I will be learning what works on the web.
     Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to begin work on a Training Manual that I have been chosen to write for a statewide social services organization. That will keep me busy for several weeks.
     And, Monday through Friday, I will happily join the ranks of fortunate folks with a full-time job.
     Saturday is our family rest day. Sunday I'll find a spot in a back pew of my favorite church,  spend a few hours on research and writing, and prepare to start a new week.
     As I understand it, these are all things all beginning writers must do - interview, read, write, work to pay the bills, make time for family and nurture the soul. It is a busy life. In a good way.