Secrets

I guess everyone has them... I imagine what what I would write on my postcard and I realize that other people I know could do the same thing. Why do we hide ourselves?

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

The ways we salvage ourselves...

Chocolate

In the end, in the long-term
wing of the assisted living
home, in the small white chamber

looking out on the patio's locked-in
blooms or in the big plain
"day room" with its blaring

TV and hopeful posters,
they fed my mother
ground-up piles of pallid

stuff in bowls clamped onto
a plastic tray and at first
she smiled, delicious, delicious,

as she sucked the oozing
juices, the last pap,
smiling surrounded by fellow

diners drooping and mumbling
in their places until
after a while she tightened

her lips against the food and
instead began unknotting,
unknotting the flowered

gown, unclothing her wasting
nakedness still white and smooth
and then at the very end,

when dreamy and slim
as a teen she welcomed
old friends and relatives who flickered

on the walls, the curtains
of the tiny room, nodding,
hello, sit down, to the shiny

nothing, she'd eat nothing
but chocolate, only chocolate,
so every day I brought an oblong

Lindt or Hershey
and square by square
she took in mouthfuls,

smiling and nodding, square
by square, delicious, dear,
until she finally

swallowed the whole dense bar.

by Sandra M. Gilbert from Belongings.

There are lots of ways we salvage ourselves when we reach the end of our ability to endure. In The Yellow Wallpaper she allowed herself to loose her mind to the woman in the paper. I take baths. Anyone else want to share?

Chara

Book feedback

I have been working, when possible on a women's devotional book to help me focus myself as a storyteller as well as get more work. I have some chapter ideas and have finished two whole chapters (minus editing etc.) but i was hoping that there might be some of you who read this that might have questions or comments that might help me focus or clarify some things that I am working on. Look it over and let me know what you think.

Women of the Word

By

Chara Watson

Chapter One

The “S” Word
(submission)

Eve was created different from Adam, as are all women created differently from all men. God’s intention was for us to be the helper, the more delicate one, the one who must submit to the leadership of men.

Chapter Two

A Woman of Service

Martha’s service was meant to allow her sister to seek a deeper relationship with Jesus- as our service is to relieve others to seek a relationship with Christ. But we can’t lose sight of our own relationship.

Chapter Three

Prayerful Woman

Hannah wanted a child and so she prayed faithfully until she was given a child. Prayer is like a conversation with a friend.

Chapter Four

The Faith of a Harlot

Rahab was despised as a woman and had never even met an Israelite, and yet she recognized and trusted the power and promises of God.

Chapter Five

Gossip/ Whispers

Mary gave birth to Jesus but there were whispers that he wasn’t Joseph’s son, or that he came too early. Mary wasn’t guilty of what people said she had done, but she was guilty like all of us, and the whispers kept the people in Jesus’ home town from believing.

Chapter Six

Beauty

Esther was made a Queen because of her great beauty, or so the people thought. Really, God made Esther beautiful so that she could be His servant. Beauty is another gift that God grants some of us, and it should be seen as an opportunity, not an obligation.

Chapter Seven

Confession and Forgiveness

One day when Jesus was in the Temple a woman was brought to him. Unlike others who were brought to him she wasn’t brought to be healed, but to be condemned for her sins. She was humiliated by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, but she was forgiven by Jesus. John 8: 2-11

Chapter Eight

Dating

Ruth and Naomi were dependent on one another when they returned to Canaan, but Ruth made herself dependent on Naomi to find a husband. The result was far different from anything Ruth or Naomi could ever have guessed.

Chapter Nine

Conflict Resolution

Abigail saw anger and conflict and offered peace by challenging the man after God’s own heart to continue to seek God.

Chapter Ten

Sex Appeal

Bathsheba was just as responsible for her part in David’s lust as David was. Sex can complicate things and keep us from being focused on God’s plan for us.

Chapter Eleven

What’s a Woman?

The Wife of Noble Character as described in Proverbs 31 isn’t at all like the woman that the world shows us to how to be. When you look at the kind of woman that is emphasized you see an emphasis on character and industry instead of beauty and independence.