"Shoveling Sand to Build Castles"

 We’ve been dealing with a pesky pandemic for about a year now. When we were first advised to stay at home, I looked forward to spending more time writing – start the next book, maybe? Always a good idea to dream big, right? I wanted to blog regularly again. Regrettably, that hasn’t happened. Something else I dreamed about doing was writing a newsletter every few months. I think I did one. While I’ve done some writing, but not as much as I imagined. I’m not even sure what all I thought I’d churn out. Still, I am happy with what I did accomplish:

One piece I worked on quite a bit, however, is a research project about two abandoned Hutterite colonies in Manitoba. I started this a few years ago, so it feels good to have it in the final editing stages. At this point I’m still not sure what will happen with it, but I envision a booklet, hopefully in the not to distant future. I know that there are many Hutterites looking forward to reading it, knowing this has kept the wind in my sails, along with the fact that both my grandmothers lived in those extinct colonies, Thorndale (aka Sharpe) and Roseisle.

I also had two short stories published in local newspapers. Work of our Hearts was published in the Manitoba Cooperator and Joy to a Weary World in the Carillon, a Steinbach weekly paper. Both of these pieces are also right here on my blog. After I posted Work of our Hearts, the editor of The Menno-Hof Newsletter, Reunion, out of Shipshewana, Indiana, saw it and asked for permission to use it in an upcoming issue. They kindly sent me a copy!

Every so often, I’m inspired to submit a story or two to Chicken Soup for the Soul. A few months ago I did just that. Who knows what that will yield, if anything? Lately, I’ve also been thinking of entering some writing contest, after a friend sent me some interesting upcoming ones. So far I’ve not ventured down that road.

Last month, being reading month, I gifted some copies of Hutterite Diaries to people on our colony who love to read. Related to that is an interesting story: Michael and I were visiting Rachel, a dear grandma on our colony one evening. She told us about a friend from Alberta
who calls her regularly. This started after the lady read Rachel Basel’s book, My Palmgrove Diary, published some years ago. Thinking about this later, I thought, 'Good for you, Rachel Basel, to have a reader who turned into a phone friend.' Wouldn't it be lovely if they could meet someday.

One day this friend told Rachel about a book which she had enjoyed reading and was wondering about the author. This happened to be my book, Hutterite Diaries, and she was wondering where I had moved to after getting married. Rachel Basel happily told her that I now lived at Crystal Spring. After relating this, Rachel Basel asked about my book, “Why have I never heard about it.” Next day, I made sure she had her own copy. She kindly gave me a copy of her book as well, which I’m looking forward to reading real soon. It's not everyday you get to exchange diaries with someone.

Over the last few months I’ve enjoyed helping our minister, Eddy Vetter organize his library. That is fascinating work because there’s a wide variety of reading material to sort through and shelf: many very old and newer books, newspaper articles going back quite a few years… Anyway, I noticed that there’s a good collection of books by and about Hutterites, but no Hutterite Diaries. “You don’t even have a copy of my book here,” I joked one day. He chuckled and gave me a typical Eddy Vetter response, “Then do something about it.” Hence, one of my books graces that library. 

I used another copy in a Christmas Secret Santa gift exchange. It went to one of our head cooks who told me, “Thanks for the book! I’ll read every word.”

As for my writing resolves, ventures, dreams…. one writer put it this way: “I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles." - Shannon Hale

How about you? What are you filling your COVID isolation days with?