{"id":10205,"date":"2020-12-31T11:30:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T17:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=10205"},"modified":"2020-12-31T11:16:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T17:16:15","slug":"writing-in-the-year-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2020\/12\/31\/writing-in-the-year-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing In The Year 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Testament parables were meant to be understood by the people of their times.\u00a0 <\/span>Seed and soil, fruit and tree, sheep and shepherd, you didn\u2019t have to be educated to immediately understand.\u00a0 <\/span>When I\u2019m a kid my dad does a version of a parable, the mule versus the horse.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d grown up country, before tractors.\u00a0 <\/span>If you were riding to town, he said, you wanted the horse, but if you were plowing a wet field, you wanted mules on the pulling end.\u00a0 <\/span>The horse was faster, but the mule was last-er.<\/p>\n

He threw that at me when I was young, and discouraged about something that was taking too long to happen.\u00a0 <\/span>I was doing it the horse way, ears back and go-go-go, first one there wins\u2026 but my goal wasn\u2019t something you got with speed, but with perseverance.<\/p>\n

That parable served me well this year.\u00a0 <\/span>2020 was a year to be a mule.<\/p>\n

Like Breaking Rocks \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I closed my store, summer of 2019, to get serious about writing.\u00a0 <\/span>I allowed myself the remaining months of 2019 to refuel \u2013 and boy did I need it.<\/p>\n

2020 would be the year of many words and big doings.<\/p>\n

Until 2020 turned into\u2026 2020\u2026<\/p>\n

This was a hard year.\u00a0 <\/span>Period.\u00a0 <\/span>For all of us.<\/p>\n

Writing this year was like breaking rocks.\u00a0 <\/span>But I wrote anyway.\u00a0 <\/span>Type, type, type, like a mule pulling a middle buster through gumbo dirt. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of it was me being me, because I\u2019ve learned to have faith in the mule way.\u00a0 <\/span>Most of the good stuff in life, you gotta chop wood and feed the fireplace, long before the house gets warm.<\/p>\n

Another part was me trusting God.\u00a0 <\/span>For a guy who once had no faith, I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m now Mr. Solid, but I\u2019m solid in some serious places.\u00a0 <\/span>One of those places is Purpose.\u00a0 <\/span>That I exist has cost God some consequences, but I\u2019m still here, so He must approve.\u00a0 <\/span>I live on the assumption that you and I are not just living, but living for some purpose.\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe the most important stuff is up ahead.\u00a0 <\/span>I came equipped with the certain raw talents, writer eye, writer mind.\u00a0 <\/span>When I\u2019m using those tools, I can almost feel my Father smiling.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s as church as church gets. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Year Of The Mule<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like most of you, I was disoriented in 2020. I don\u2019t know where much of the year went, but it sure went.<\/p>\n

The back-to-back hurricanes hurt my heart worse than my roof. I couldn\u2019t decide between being mad or sad or just plain give-up-ish.<\/p>\n

Like you, I didn\u2019t have a New Years resolution to take a chainsaw after the neighbor\u2019s tree that fell on my roof.\u00a0 <\/span>Nor did I anticipate the menial labor of pick-pick-picking up of hurricane debris.<\/p>\n

Limbs and shingles, first the big ones, then the medium ones, then the little ones, then the little bitties\u2026\u00a0 <\/span>If that ain\u2019t mule work, I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n

We each have our story, of doing the First Thing, then the Next Thing, and then the Thing After That.\u00a0 <\/span>Now, pushing end of the year, we resent the bad work, but we\u2019re also kind of proud, of all the doing that we did. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The mule way, it ain\u2019t pretty, but it\u2019s productive.<\/p>\n

Bread Upon The Waters\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Through it all, I kept writing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The hurricanes broke me open.\u00a0 <\/span>All that mule stuff, it was foundational.\u00a0 <\/span>Suddenly I had a path, and a flow. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting my second book done, in a year like 2020, is a kind of victory. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have the fancy website and all that, yet.\u00a0 <\/span>If you\u2019d like to order a copy of the new book, Bread Upon The Waters (or the first book, Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories, Volume I), email me at 81unclep@gmail.com.\u00a0 <\/span>I need: Name, Address, Quantity (of which book), and any Names if you want books personalized for gifts.\u00a0 <\/span>Act now, if wanting for Christmas gifts.<\/p>\n

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _<\/p>\n

This edition of Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories is dedicated to southwest Louisiana.\u00a0 <\/span>Look at us in early September, and look at us now.\u00a0 <\/span>We\u2019re tough.\u00a0 <\/span>Yeah us!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Testament parables were meant to be understood by the people of their times.\u00a0 Seed and soil, fruit and tree, sheep and shepherd, you didn\u2019t have to be educated to immediately understand.\u00a0 When I\u2019m a kid my dad does a version of a parable, the mule versus the horse. He\u2019d grown up country, before tractors.\u00a0 [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[2321,2374,2338,59,894],"yoast_head":"\nWriting In The Year 2020 - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2020\/12\/31\/writing-in-the-year-2020\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Writing In The Year 2020 - BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New Testament parables were meant to be understood by the people of their times.\u00a0 Seed and soil, fruit and tree, sheep and shepherd, you didn\u2019t have to be educated to immediately understand.\u00a0 When I\u2019m a kid my dad does a version of a parable, the mule versus the horse. 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