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Even though I am blessed to be working from home for my business, many are having to be forced to do so due to this pandemic of COVID-19 …And being isolated as we are is not a normal way to live life. Look, I get that, but, if staying at home means that it could help save lives?  I would choose LIFE over making a BUCK. (Of course, just my own opinion)…

Today everyone is talking about “DO WE OPEN”? or DO WE STAY CLOSED?

The news media outlets are putting a spin on just about every piece of information about this pandemic when it comes out and I don’t know about you, but I am so tired of it. I see how it makes everyone on edge, moody, and I need a break from it all.

“Even After The End Of A Rainbow? You Have To Take A Break”

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I write this because I am ready to take some time off.  Yes, “The Rainbow” is how I feel  being blessed to work from home and love doing what I do to help other authors, but after book marketing, promoting and consulting for many from October 2013 to now with no time off?  The time seems right to do so.

We already don’t watch much news or TV as it just raises my anxiety over this pandemic and since my work is done through some media, social media, and the internet, I see all the articles and heartbreaking stories of families losing loved ones from this virus. Then you have those who are screaming that they are not getting the financial help from the government, so businesses want to open and seem to not CARE that it could make this virus spread even more?

YUP, this Cat is ready for a Mental, Emotional, Well-Being Break!

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I hope to back by late July or August 2020 and I’ll have some fresh and exciting things to come back and share with all my friends, authors, writers, and visitors! Like a name change that I will share as I’ll be adding more services but backing off on the actual promoting side of things.

“Lyon Literary Consulting Services” can help authors from the time your manuscript has the last word written in it through publishing and beyond! So make sure you stop by often as I will be sharing my author friends and a few updates till then!

I am happy to share my dear friend and fellow author, Tony Roberts who has a post up that shares what this cat has been feeling about journaling and getting back to writing!

I know you will enjoy it and be uplifted through Tony’s words and inspired! … xoxox
CAT

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(Stop by and read other amazing posts written by Tony on “Delight in Disorder”…}

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A Burning Fire; A Wisp of Smoke

Writing, then, was a substitute for myself: if you don’t love me, love my writing & love me for my writing. It is also much more: a way of ordering and reordering the chaos of experience. ― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

 

I keep a daily journal of happenings in my life. Some of these things emerge in my public writing. Literary quotes. Character sketches. Story outlines. You will also find less assuming material in my journals. Financial profiles. Schedules. Contact information. To call these daily journals is generous at best. Sometimes weeks go by without a single entry. Then I’ll go on a binge and nearly fill a book in a week.

If my journal could speak in those gaps, it would cry out in anguish, wail in sorrow, moan in despair. But the pages are blank. Like my mind. Unborn words. Aborted sentences. Silent stories. Flannery O’Connor once said,

I write to discover what I know.

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When I don’t write, I can’t think. This is one reason I’ve found such delight in chatting. I write much better than I talk. It’s not that I can be more impressive, but more authentic. There is a direct vein from my fingers to my heart that pumps life into my words which represent me better than what comes out of my mouth.

I have never been one to keep a private diary. On the contrary, I am eager to be read, for people to like what I write, to be liked for what I write. I want people to find meaning in the way I string words together, knit sentence after sentence, stitch a story quilt that is not only beautiful, but will keep them warm in an often bitter cold world.

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A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke.  ― Vincent van Gogh.

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Writing is a blessing and a curse. I am blessed to work alone, on my own schedule. And sometimes I am cursed with loneliness. As I write, I stare at the blank screen, my fingers hovering over the keyboard, searching for something inspired to say. At times the words flow.  But not tonight. Tonight they are buried in a forest of wispy metaphors and burned-out analogies.

van Gogh’s analogy about the fire burning within works for me at least two levels. The fire is both the passion to create and the dangerous drive to destroy. Creativity sparks my lit desire to make sense of a nonsensical world. Even when no one finds warmth in its flames. Even if it is only viewed as a vaporous puff.

On another level, the fire is self-destructive. Moving with no clear path, ravishing my mind, slashing through my relationships, burning out my desire. No one stops to absorb my heat, contain my flames. They see little else than a faint, indistinct cloud.

It is a celebrated fact that van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime. Some see this as a testament to futility. Maybe he should have given up and become a house painter to better earn his keep. Some say this points to society’s failure to recognize genius. It is a tragic shame we only acknowledge an artist’s worth after his or her untimely death.

I instead choose to look at it from the perspective of Vincent’s patron, his brother Theo. Theo van Gogh was an art dealer who absolutely adored his older brother. Not only did he make it financially possible for Vincent to pursue the art of painting with his whole heart, Theo was also generous with his praise and encouragement for his brother to see to his health.

Vincent wrote many letters to Theo (see The Letters of Vincent van Gogh) expressing his views on art, nature, God, friendship. This work is a thick brush stroke of simple beauty, such as this line Vincent directed solely at Theo,

… money can be repaid, but not kindness such as yours.

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Success such as van Gogh’s is not measured in receiving popular acclaim, but in the loving appreciation of one person. This makes all the difference in the world. It makes all the difference for the world.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“I  first sensed a calling to be a writer at the age of nine when I composed my first poem, “Ode to My Pet Rock.”

I was born and raised in the Hoosier heartland just south of Indianapolis. I grew up worshiping high school basketball and once had the honor of playing in a televised “game of the week.”

I went to Hanover College (alma mater of both Mike Pence and Woody Harrelson – go figure). After many detours into sex, drugs, and more folk rock than roll, I wound up at seminary and became a pastor. It was then that symptoms of depression and mania culminated in a psychotic episode that became pivotal in my life, for better and for worse.

After graduating from Hanover, I obtained an Master of Divinity degree from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. While there, I did ministry assignments at a state hospital for persons with developmental disabilities, as well as at a women’s prison, and a inner-city hospital.

I served two decades as a solo pastor. I then shifted to writing, speaking, and leading small groups. In March of 2014, I published my spiritual memoir, Delight in Disorder: Ministry, Madness, Mission. Having served in pastoral ministry and gone mad, it’s now my mission to bridge the gap between faith communities and the mental health world.

I now live in Columbus, Indiana, with supportive family and faithful friends who keep me honest and encourage me to be who God created me to be. My greatest earthly delights are my four children and two grandchildren, with one more on the way. “The soul is healed by being with children.” (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) Book is available on Amazon …

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