leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: Be Silent, Listen!
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2015/05/be-silent-listen.html
Tuesday, May 19, 2015. Be Silent, Listen! Silent and listen have exactly the same letters. One is an anagram of the other. Not only are they inter-related, they are also inter-dependent. One can’t listen without first being silent. When there is so much noise outside and inside of us, we can’t hear what another person is saying or feeling. Worse, we can’t hear God. Reading the Bible is another. The Bible is one of the ways through which He speaks to us. We must be silent before we can listen. We must lea...
leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: A Fascinating Fan
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-fascinating-fan.html
Thursday, August 6, 2015. The text message surprised me. It came from a name (let’s call her Eve) I could hardly recall. But her words were intriguing. Anything that has to do with my books gets my attention. 8220;My only grandson, Rafa, is a fan of your children’s books. He wants to meet Grace D. Chong [how I'm called by my young readers].” Eve also reminded me we stayed in the same dorm in college. That was a million years ago; how on earth could she remember? Rafa’s parents and Eve have been rea...
leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: Rose’s Rainbow
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2015/07/roses-rainbow.html
Thursday, July 2, 2015. My friend Rose loves music—so much that she can sing, play the keyboard, and compose songs in a wink. She conducts the choir in her home church and she wrote and put to music our university hymn. One day last week, I showed her the photo of my latest painting while she hummed a tune. Suddenly, she said, “Grace, would you paint me a rainbow with notes on it? She belted out a song of grace. In the Bible, the rainbow is the beautiful sign of God’s covenant with Noah and every l...
leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: Trivial Meetings
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2015/06/trivial-meetings.html
Tuesday, June 16, 2015. How productive are your meetings? Do you really spend more time discussing the major issues, or do you dwell on the trivial ones? I’ve attended top-level meetings myself where busted lightbulbs—and other minor concerns that could have been delegated to the janitor—were discussed with passion. That’s called the Parkinson’s Law of Triviality (PLOT), created by the man who likewise created the Parkinson’s Law, which I blogged about. Why do such meetings happen? According to Parkinson...
leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: Why I Write for Children
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2015/07/why-i-write-for-children.html
Tuesday, July 21, 2015. Why I Write for Children. This post was originally written for the OMFLit. Blog page to celebrate National Children's Book Day, today. I am re-posting it here for my cyber friends.). Many people think that writing for children is easier than writing for adults. It is not. I’ve been writing a story on patriotism for years, but failing. To adults, patriotism is love for country, but how do you translate that to kids? If I were to write for children at all, I mused, I should not simp...
leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: Adrian
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2007/05/adrian.html
Thursday, May 10, 2007. Years ago I lost a son. His name was Adrian. Over time, the pain has dulled. But the what-might-have-been never really goes away. Not totally. Although my husband, Tony, and I never talk about that dark episode in our lives, Adrian's memory has a permanent place in each of our hearts. 8221; The ultrasound was just an inspired thought. My three living children are oblivious to this grief. JC. Was barely four years old when that happened. And JB. So, what next? 8217;s wife, Gianina,...
leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: The Greatest Play Ever Written (6)
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-greatest-play-ever-written-6.html
Monday, August 10, 2015. The Greatest Play Ever Written (6). Ehud, the Assassin. That would make a perfect title for a bestselling book thriller adapted into a movie or a Broadway play. Ehud’s story, which comes right out of Judges 3, is action-packed, garnished with gore and greed. It happened during the reign of Eglon, king of Moab, who oppressed and coerced the people of Israel into worshipping idols. The Israelites cried out to the Lord for deliverance. When Ehud returned to the people of Israel, he ...
leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: Alive, Alert, Awake, Enthusiastic
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2015/06/alive-alert-awake-enthusiastic.html
Sunday, June 28, 2015. Alive, Alert, Awake, Enthusiastic. Four peppy words from an old, old camp song, which we used to sing with gusto, defined me—and they still do, or so I think. We recently sang this song in one gathering and I am blessed to still be alive, first of all. Then the fact that I am still alert—friends say I am quick to respond to communications like emails and FB messages, and can take notes faster than a millennial—is a bonus. Enthusiastic—I oooh and aaah at every little thing....
leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: Happy Home
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2014/12/happy-home.html
Monday, December 1, 2014. In recent years, there has been a surge of single-parent and extended families. The nuclear family (defined as a group that includes only the father, mother, and biological children) is vanishing. I prefer to define family as a household with a father, mother, children (biological or adopted), and househelps, who treat every individual with respect, and whose love for each other and God is boundless. That’s why when OMF Literature. It is called Coming Home. And while making the ...
leavesofgrace.blogspot.com
LEAVES OF GRACE: Amahrazzi
http://leavesofgrace.blogspot.com/2015/07/amahrazzi.html
Wednesday, July 29, 2015. The smart little boy who happens to be my one and only grandson, blew into town, blessing us with the privilege of doting on him for two weeks. Now, that's what I'd call a windfall! He calls me Amah (Chinese honorific for mom of my dad). And because I follow and take pictures of him wherever he goes, he also calls me Amahrazzi. He could be right; I charged my camera battery more than a thousand times during the 14 days he spent with us. Vi—TV some, reading lots. He asks difficul...
