Everyday Woman Radio Show with Vicki Hinze

Join Me Today on blogtalkradio at 2

I'm doing an interview on blogtalkradio.com today at 2 PM. Listen in HERE.

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Mistakes We Make #11 & Vicki Talks Writing on TV Tonight

READ ARTICLE

errors, mistakes, flaws, authors, writers, novelists, creative writing, nurture, positive environment, constructive solutions, resolutions, what we need, what we want Vicki Hinze, writers library

Note: Vicki will be appearing on WSRE (PBS) tonight at 7 PM talking about writing.

Memorial

On October 15th, my beloved mother-in-law, Leona Hinze, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She has now passed.

She was a courageous woman to the very end, and one who experienced many changes in her ninety-one years. For 68 of those years, she played the organ for her church, St. John’s Lutheran. In my 34 years with her, she often said when she reached playing for a hundred weddings, she was going to retire, but then someone would ask her to play for their wedding and she always did. At the time of her death, she had played 127 weddings and over 300 funerals.

Music was her ministry and her passion, and I, along with many others, were privileged to hear her express her heartfelt passion often and for a long time.

Once, when I thought I was dying, I told her I had been blessed. I’d had a life of being well loved and of loving well. In real life, that’s about the best it gets. A few days before her death, she told me that she’d thought about loving and being loved and she’d been blessed with a wonderful life. Now and forever all of us treasure those words from her and we’re comforted by them.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested contributions to the Leona Hinze Memorial Fund at St. John’s Lutheran Church. The address is 3316 Hummingbird Lane at Hwy 77, Robstown, Tx 78380. This memorial fund is dedicated to a new organ for the church.

Blessings,

Vicki

ATTENTION READERS AND THOSE BUYING BOOKS TODAY

CODE #: 18391243

If you are buying books at Barnes & Noble online

or in the store today,

please use the code number above.

BN will send a portion of the net proceeds to

Edge Elementary School.

It costs you nothing,

it can provide the resources

to really help the little ones attending this school.

Blessings,

Vicki

Edge Tigers

Dealing With Stress

WARNING:  This is a no-edit zone...

In the last week, every email that I’ve gotten from those who read this blog has related to crisis and stress.  Understandable, considering. 

Stress either builds slowly over time or comes on like a gangbuster and body slams you.  Either way, we know that stress kills.   Many try to ignore what has them stressed.  They deny, rationalize, ignore, suppress, or otherwise attempt to hide from the stress factors that are burdening them.

It doesn’t work.  And the impairments that come with it impact you emotionally, spiritually and physically.  There is no calm, peace, serenity and the physical body rebels against all those things.  You see headaches, body aches even nausea and colon challenges.  The entire body can be impacted and tossed into turmoil.

What does work?

Dealing with the stress.

How do you do that?

Get physical. 
     Exercise releases endorphins that counter the chemical imbalance stress brings on.

Get rested.
     Weariness and exhaustion destroys our ability to make calm, rational decisions or to set our course of actions.

Get smart.
     Whether your worries are personal, your private business, your professional business, the nation’s business--get informed.  It’s impossible to make wise choices when you don’t know the details.  When you understand the challenge, then you can focus on the solution. 

Making that shift--from the challenge to the solution is paramount in lowering your stress level.  Why?  Because command of the matter gives you confidence that the decisions you make will be good ones, seated in wisdom.

These are stressful times and they’re going to get worse before they get better.  Every generation has its challenges, and this one is no exception.  That isn’t always a bad thing.  It’s not pleasant, but challenges have value.  If we elect not to ignore but to deal with these challenges, we often discover what we stand for, what we will not stand for.  We discover our strengths, our character.  

We discover ourselves . . .

Blessings,

Vicki

Vicki Hinze
www.vickihinze.com

Stork Alert!

The stork has landed...

I'll be out a few days! :)

Blessings,

Vicki

Important Note

Effective today, I will be posting my blogs on my website as follows:

Writing: Craft, Art, Business and Life: My Kitchen Table

Spirituality: Faith Zone

The "Vicki Hinze on Writing" blog will be incorporated into the MY KITCHEN TABLE blog.

The website url, should you have link challenges or desire to paste into your browser is:

http://www.vickihinze.com

Blessings,

Vicki

P.S. If you're viewing this via reader, you'll need to visit the www.vickihinze.com website to view any updates.

I apologize for any inconvenience, but I'm paddling as hard as I can, and I just can't keep up, so I'm having to consolidate where and when possible. Appreciate your understanding.

For your convenience, I will still notify you of new posts here.

Vicki Hinze
www.vickihinze.com

TAGS: Vicki Hinze, hinze blog, CREATIVE WRITING, feature article, writing craft, books, novels, readers, authors, emerald coast writers, novelists, booksellers, book reviewers, everyday woman radio, romance writers, thriller writers, suspense writers

Feature Article on Personal Character

EACH DAY YOU CHOOSE...

ARE YOU A PERSON OF CHARACTER
OR A CHARACTER LACKING HUMANITY?

Read the new feature article

LIFE TURNS ON A DIME

Life, they say, is what happens while you’re otherwise occupied.

I’m not sure if I believe that, but I do believe that you can miss life by being occupied. We can get caught up in crisis living and miss the turns on our personal paths that are most meaningful.

What do I mean?

Honestly, I’m grappling with what exactly I mean, so we’ll just talk it through together, since the matter is very much on my mind this morning due to two significant events.

The two events. I guess that’s a good place to start.

Event #1: a neighbor died. He and his wife had one child, a son. He was college-age, a smart guy with character and tons of potential. A few years ago, he was crossing a bridge and a car veered into his lane and hit him head-on. He had nowhere to go, and was killed. His parents suffered the heartache of losing their child and now his father has passed, and my heart aches for his widow. She’s buried her child and will now bury her husband, and she’s left to cope with the loss alone. I find myself asking how will she bear it, and praying she’s a woman of faith because, I’ll tell you, I watched my mother bury two sons and then my father and I know that her faith is what got her through it intact.

Event #2: all the tornadoes that hit in the last two days, and all the lives cut short because they did. Each of those people had lives and hopes and dreams and aspirations. I’m sure many had enormous potential and mile-long to-do lists, too. Things that just couldn’t wait, so they put their lives on hold--the things important to them personally--to do those “can’t wait,” or crisis-living things. Yet in the span of mere minutes, all of those things became insignificant. Every bit of them did, because in that twinkling, they lost their lives. All that potential and those hopes and dreams and aspirations went with them, too.

I can’t shake thoughts of them in those last minutes. When they knew what was coming and they couldn’t avoid it. What were they thinking then? When the realization hit them that they were going to die, what were their thoughts?

I’m sure there was fear. I’m sure there was anger and cries of, “But it’s too soon. I’m not ready yet.” And I’m sure there were regrets. Things done that they wished could be undone. Things left unsaid that now would remain unsaid. Self-recrimination on priorities and perspectives of what most mattered now shifting.

I’m not sure of the nature of those regrets, but I wonder... Were any of them thinking of the crisis-living things they simply had to do before the storm?

We all have duties, responsibilities and obligations. Often so many of them that we keep pushing aside high-priority personal items. It’s those things I wonder how these people felt about at that twinkling moment.

I know that during crisis moments we often see most clearly. Our focus becomes laser sharp, intense on the matter at hand and we give everything--our all--to whatever is on our minds at that moment in time.

I know that on the other side of crises, people who have experienced those moments and survived often make a sharp turn in their lives. They consider the crisis a wake-up call and redefine their lives. They take a look at their priority list and turn it on its ear. They shun crisis-living and adopt personal priority living. And often that personal priority living has to do with dreams they’ve carried with them for a lifetime, or maybe hints of that dream that in that moment of intense clarity came sharply into focus.

This has me calling the question: Can we reach that twinkling moment, that point in time where we have laser focus and gain that clarity without experiencing a personal, life-threatening crisis?

We can. It isn’t hard to mentally place ourselves in the positions of others who have been there and done that. And if we do, then we have the opportunity to learn from their experience. We might not share all of the emotional impact that they endure, but we can grasp and project and imagine, and gain deeper insight and understanding. We can awaken and seek wisdom in this way.

There is always merit in seeking wisdom. In looking at our own crisis-living items and personal priority items and weighing what we’re doing. There’s wisdom in evaluating these things when we aren’t in crisis because we still have an opportunity to change them.

For some, they’ll choose the status quo. Life’s comfortable and they don’t want it any different. That’s their choice, and I’m sure there’s comfort in having weighed the matter and made the call. The peace that comes with knowing you’ve considered it and you’re doing what’s right for you.

Some will redefine aspects of their lives. Of those who do, some will stick with those new changes and some will slide back into the old. Their choice. Again, better because it’s come as a result of deep thought and not of apathy.

Some will challenge every single thing that has been a part of their lives and make significant changes. Life-altering, life-defining changes. Of these, some will be reborn into a life very different from the one they’ve been living, and they’ll thump themselves for waiting so long. Some will wonder what they were thinking to do this at this point in their lives, in their careers. Regardless, they will choose from a broader, more insightful perspective.

You know, I don’t think what’s significant is the path one takes so much as that one takes it with a deeper awareness of life. Taking it deliberately. Intent on taking it. That is a good thing.

Whether that awareness brings a person to a point on their journey where they move straight ahead or turn on a dime, veering sharply in a totally different direction, well that’s a choice. But the awareness, and all it brings to the person, well that’s a gift.

A gift?

Yes. Absolutely, a gift. It’s one of those gems of wisdom that is home to solace and comfort and peace.

Now I know what I mean. And I’m going to reassess from this perspective. Will I stay on the current road or change directions on a dime? I don’t know. But I will know soon. Will you?

Blessings,

Vicki

©2008, Vicki Hinze

Tags: life, crisis, death, grief, change, choice, career, path, journey, wisdom, perspective, assessment, decisions, direction, awareness, authors, writers, novels, novelists, books, readers, Vicki Hinze, writer's library

C H A R A C T E R

An Alert to let you know that I've posted a new WINTER FEATURE ARTICLE and the FEBRUARY 2008 NEWSLETTER on my website at www.vickihinze.com.

The subject of the Feature Article is CHARACTER: Are You a Person of Substance, or a Substance Lacking Humanity?

Enjoy!!!

Blessings,

Vicki

Vicki Hinze

Tags:
author, character, choices, CREATIVE WRITING, ethics, feature article, integrity, morals, newsletter, romance writer, substance, thriller writers, Vicki Hinze, writing library