What's Up Wednesday- Aug 14th

Seven-year Orchids, Cricket Click Tracks & the Miraculous Emergence of Beauty

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up.  Should you wish to join, check out Jaime's or Erin's lovely blogs and sign up with the link widget at the bottom of the post.

WHAT I'M READING

I haven't had a lot of time for reading this week. This week has absolutely flown by. I started re-reading CAT'S CRADLE by Kurt Vonnegut because I had forgotten a couple of things about the book that I wanted to remember.

WHAT I'M WRITING

I wrote a very fun scene in my new MS. I am still loving this one, which is encouraging. I can't wait to share it with someone and see if I'm totally crazy or if it really is better than my last four books. (I'm so embroiled in the mire that I don't entirely trust my own judgement anymore.) I also made tiny, little baby steps on my edits for ISIS. I think all the scenes are now in the right order, I've made most of the changes on my checklist. Now I just have to reread the whole thing and make sure it works. Can I have a few extra hours in the day, because I would really like to make this happen? 

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

I've been spending a little time trying to catch up on the awesomeness that is WriteOnCon. The Band and I have been recording a couple of songs which has been very fun. I'm unable to resist including samples of sounds I've taken from nature into everything. So if you ever hear one of my creations, yes those are birds and frogs and crickets and thunder in the background. (Did you know you can accurately tell the temperature with the speed of cricket chirps? Plus they make excellent click tracks. *grin*)

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

Seven years ago, we noticed a tiny, nondescript vine on our orange tree. It looked like some type of orchid, but we weren't sure what kind. We meant to key it out, but then somehow forgot all about it. Then out of the blue this week (seven years later), the tiny forgotten vine bloomed into the picture you see above. I was heading out to the deck to have breakfast, coffee cup in hand, and was stopped dead in my tracks. The bloom was floating in the air like a giant, pink ghost. It's about the size of my palm.

It made me think about how small miracles of beauty sometimes find their way into the world. Sometimes they sit latent and forgotten for years. And then when the time is right, and just enough moisture has fallen, they spring forth into something truly miraculous. There is a time for everything. Maybe there's a time for you too. For your ideas, your words. Perhaps after nothing happening for years, something wonderful will spring forth. And the world will stop in its spinning for a moment to go, "Wow, look what you had inside you all this time."