A2Z Take Two: Returning with Ragman

I’m back! In February my shoulder collapsed and had me almost bed-bound with pain. Due to my disease and a number of factors that aggravated it, some of the muscles in the back apparently gave up, so any time I was other than flat on my back, it felt like my shoulder was being ripped off with a burning chainsaw.

Eventually God brought me to the right kind of therapy and it’s finally a little better now. However, I’m still having quite a bit more pain than before, mostly in the shoulder but everywhere else, too (since I needed one more chronic thing), especially when driving. I’ve had to lower my interpreting hours at work to only four a week until they invent hovers that can be programed to deliver me automatically to work while I sleep in the back, or until my shoulder decides to behave differently—whichever comes first.

At any rate, I’m trying to catch back up with life again, including my blog. One of the first things I did when I was a little better was recorded myself performing “The Ragman” in ASL and then putting on English captions. It’s such a wonderful story that I just had to try it myself. So here’s a video of that for you. (and you can probably see how much lower my right shoulder is.) To turn on the captions click on the red CC button.

I also finally got my novel, Reaching Sky, back from my last beta reader and have sent it off for a final edit and proof read. Whew! A year and a half for a first book isn’t too bad. I can’t wait to see what the publisher says, but guess I’ll have to wait, since I haven’t even sent it in yet….

When I graduated and started doing more interpreting a few years ago, then I stopped doing much freelance editing. Well, now that I’ve had to lower my interpreting hours, it seems like God is bringing me back into editing. I have a few small jobs coming up and may be getting hired to do a big rewrite of a project to help give it more of a story feel.

Oh and guess what? many of you know the situation about how the FDIC (by proxy of a big builder) is suing my parents for all their land, retirement savings, vehicles, and forced us to move to a smaller place, through no fault of our own. Hundreds of other builders all over the U.S. are in the same situation and finally we made enough noise that the senate is setting up a hearing to review the issue on May 16th. Please pray they are able to see clearly and bring justice.

Check out more "R" posts in the A2Z meme at www.pattywysong.com and feel free to jump right in and blog with us next week for S.

Broken Seashell Thoughts

A wave slips around my toes, the kiss of cold foam stirring the sand, revealing a glint of pearly pink. I bend and pick up the shell, just a fragment, the swirled design cut short by ragged edges. It’s been crushed by the waves, ground by the sand, yet I admire it and slip it into my bucket with the others I’ve collected.

The bright bottom of the plastic castle-shaped bucket is filled with shell pieces of all shapes and sizes, the few rare purples standing out in dark contrast to the pale tans and pinks. All of them are beautiful. All of them give a glimpse of the once-whole home that was so carefully built to house the various creatures. I’ll make something pretty with these pieces… I’ll make them into a whole.

It occurred to me that we are like those shells. The world has crushed us and battered us. Perhaps we have a few sharp edges, or ragged tears. We’ve given part of ourselves to the world, and contributed to its change, perhaps just as subtly as the few grains of sand each shell adds to the beach around it. We’re broken, and lie in the midst of the busy world, sometimes feeling useless and forgotten, buried in the sands of time.

Then He comes. Our Heavenly Father scoops us up, just like I picked up that broken shell. He sees a reflection of Himself as the Creator in the colors that curl across the hard surface, in the emotions that swirl in our hearts. He sees what we once were, what we would have been had we not been marred by the sin of the world. He knows what we will be, when we are whole once again--perfect and untarnished.

Most of all, He loves. He sees beauty in our broken offerings, lifts us in His hands, and puts us safely into His kingdom, His castle. He has chosen us. We have accepted Him. Nothing we can do can change the way He sees us, because He sees us whole, redeemed, His own precious shell. His child.



These are my reflections today, as I wandered the beaches. My family is vacationing for a glorious week. I’ve been in a lot of pain and nausea, but still I find grace. I have time to relax (as much as possible) and read, book after book. I can gaze out the window and watch the sunset over the waves right from my bed. Even now as I type I see the golden-crested waves slowly giving way to the deep blue of dusk. The royal blue that fills my soul and touches my heart with a beauty only a Creator could give.

This week I listen to my nieces giggle over the wonders of the ocean, and reach for lots of wet hugs and sandy snuggles. My family gathers together, playing games, talking walks, being together. My sister and I lie awake, pain chasing the sleep far from our eyes, and we talk and giggle long into the wee hours of the mornings.

All of us crowd together to peer at the odd spectacle of a piranha stretched dying on the shore, far from his native waters, showing sharp lines of jagged teeth as he gasps for breath. We rush to the window to spot the huge crabs that line the beach, count the seventeen pelicans that fly above, or squint to catch a glimpse of the otters that play just below the water’s surface.

Yes, there are times I can’t walk much because I feel too sick, or times I can’t play much because it hurts too bad. But even in those times I know beauty and love, from my family and from God. And, as I watch the sun dance on the tips of the waves like glittering paths of live embers, I know all is well. For broken as I am, I’m secure in the Creator’s hand. He sees beauty, and I love in return.


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Surgical success!

Chrissy from Australia’s surgery was a success! She had it last week and within a day or two she was up and walking around with much more ease and less pain than before the surgery. Praise God! There is still a chance of blood clots to be praying against, but so far everything is going wonderfully smoothly.