7 days from right now 5 of my dear friends will arrive to our lake-house up here in Northern California.  Two are flying in from St. Louis, another from Florida, still another from Texas, and one other native Californian.  Most writers, a couple of photographers, and all wonderfully talented communicators of God's marvelous goodness, beauty, and love.

This is only our second annual retreat together, but the cords that were bound a year ago were tied so beautifully tight, we are all anticipating great fun and fruitful days once again.

I am most excited about our evenings today; evenings spent breaking bread and reading chapters aloud to one another, as the sun sets over the lake just beyond the window.  

Kelli, over at Minivans are Hot, is working on a compelling novel about multiple complex characters, and the tales take place in Eastern Europe during the second World War. Horrible and frightful, yet evocative and moving.  The chapters she reads aloud are more like imagining an actual epic film, but hearing only the sound, seeing only the characters move throughout their environment in your mind!

It will be a great pleasure of mine to write a review and give a copy of two away when it has gone to print.

Angie, from Celebrating Holidays, inspired us all with her thorough yet easy to understand historical account of America's Beloved 4th of July.  She also is in the process of publishing a pamphlet on our most controversial holiday amongst Christians in America, Halloween.  This year she will be working on researching the history and American symbols of Easter, the songs we sing and the meals we prepare, as well as the traditions we love to celebrate.  Her most extensive work yet is Christmas: Celebrating the Christian History of American Symbols, Songs and Stories.  Which can be ordered here.

A newcomer to our circle this year is Tammy of Tammy Labuda Photography in the Dallas, Texas area.  Her recent Macro work found here and here on her blog is really exciting, but I'm more interested to see how she tackle the sweeping vistas of lake and vineyards here in Lake County, just north of Napa. 

And then there's me.  Last year I had pages and pages of notes that launched me productively into the book I was working on.  By the end of our four days of writing I had penned over 60 pages, but something was missing.  Two somethings I deemed very important in fact.  The first was my voice. As a speaker I never doubted who I was or what I sounded like.  We'd laugh together and cry together, the audience and I.  But on the page I just sounded like black ink hitting white printer paper.  The other problem, that truly brought my project to a halt was that I knew I had more to learn about my topic.  I'm sure I'll share more about the topic in posts to come, but for today just know that I knew I had gobs more to learn before I sought to share it with others.  So the messenger had to stop to learn the message.  And I've done a lot of learning this year... and started this blog to help me discover my "voice."

That said, I don't have a 3 lb. stack of notes laid out in preparation for next week.  But the Spirit is stirring and I am excited to see what comes as I put together all that I've learned these past 12 months.  

I recognize that this post is a little self-indulgent, but it's what's on my mind tonight.  But if I could share an application with you I'd simply say... We all have a message.  A special Message.  Maybe learned, maybe being learned, maybe yet to be learned... May it all just seems like a mess today, but persevere... it's on it's way to becoming a future message for others.  We are all vessels of encouragement and support and our messages have the power to edify and uplift others along the way.  Tammy, Angie, and Kelli do that in my own life, and I pray that I'm an instrument of God's love and exhortation in the lives of others.

What's your message?  And to whom are you being sent?

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