Perspective

In July of 2003, the Lord allowed something to happen in my life that would change the way I do things. While I was in Orlando, Florida attending the Christy awards for Christian novelists, my right hip prosthesis broke, rendering me helpless and sending me on my first-ever ambulance ride.

Two hip revisions later, complications from the surgeries have made walking without an assisted device impossible. After much prayer and physical therapy, I’m still using a wheelchair and a fancy four-wheeled walker to get around. I do believe in miracles. The physicians have done what they can, and unless the Great Physician chooses to intervene, I will likely be “rolling” through this life.

That’s not an easy thing to accept at age fifty-nine. Pride doesn’t die without a fight, but I’ve had years of practice. I’ve expressed my disappointment to the Lord many times and have finally come to the conclusion that it’s far more pleasing to Him that I lift up His Name in spite of my disability than to let my desire for healing consume me.

And in spite of my limitations—perhaps because of them—an unseen reservoir deep inside me keeps filling the pages with stories that surprise me, and characters that I’ve never met and yet know intimately.

I’m telling you this because on my website I’ve posted many photographs of my fishing and traveling adventures, some taken before I became disabled, and some taken since. I still love fishing and traveling, but on a smaller scale. Nowadays I’m more inclined to go birding than deep sea fishing, but the adventurer in me is always discovering something amazing about God’s creation.

And when you get right down to it, life looks pretty much the same whether you’re sitting in a wheelchair or standing on two feet. It’s all perspective.

Gram” is trying to help granddaughter Selah muster the courage to feed popcorn to the geese one piece at a time.	Here I am (far left in front row) with fellow novelists at the ChiLibris author’s retreat in Orlando, Florida in July 2008.
My serious effort at bowling was a hit at my granddaughter Lauren’s sixth birthday party. I’m a good sport about trying almost anything.	I loved sampling the new release freebees at an author’s retreat. One of the perks of being in the company of other authors is sharing books!
I found this little beggar, or I should say he found me, at the Wichita National Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, Oklahoma.	.Holding the hummingbird feeder and feeling the birds light on my fingers is a “high” like nothing else I know. It’s just awesome!
Paul and I drove to a nearby blueberry farm on the last day of the season. It was 103 degrees outside, and pickin's were slim. But we know where we'll be when the season begins.	While researching the Sophie Trace Trilogy, Paul and I spent an evening at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company in Gatlinburg—truly a cultural experience not to be missed.
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