My Ideal Client--Thanks to Michael Port (BOOK YOURSELF SOLID) for This Valuable Insight!!!

In a few more hours (from here on the west coast of the USA) we'll be entering 2012. I'm doing everything in my power to make this a breakthrough year: the year I get up on my water skis (metaphorically) and get tugged around by the strides I've made in previous months and years to get the word out in a big way about what I do.

I just wrote a document called "My Ideal Client." Michael Port, who wrote Book Yourself Solid, espouses the notion that until you carefully identify who your ideal client is, you'll be spinning your wheels and finding the wrong clients.  I've been awfully lucky to have accepted projects that are within my passions and niche, but I noticed that a lot of potential clients invite me to quote on their projects when they have no idea what I charge, the topics I tackle, or the topics I avoid, so they were losing precious time seeking me out and I was losing precious time explaining why I was declining their invitations: their budgets were too low, their topic not in my realm, etc.

Now that I've taken the time to profile my ideal client, I should start hearing from folks whose projects will inspire me to do my absolute best for them...and they'll know, up front, that I'm not amenable to entry-level copywriting fees. I'm not asking exorbitant rates at all; many clients have told me I charge too little for the value they receive, but I'm not in this field to gouge people: I'm in it to earn a decent living while making sure clients receive more than they expect for the money they pay me.

I'll post the document here. By reading it, you may be able to think of businesses and non-profit foundations that can use my services, instead of having to think "generically" about who to introduce me to. And remember: if you refer someone to me, and they let me know you did, I will send you 10% of the total project when it's completed.  So there's something in it for you, too. 

I hope the following helps you help me--and the friends and acquaintances you send to me!

Here we go:

Kristine M. Smith, Copywriter and Editor

My Ideal Client—Thumbnail Sketch

My Ideal Client is...

1.) Passionate about a benevolent cause (human, animal, environment)

A few examples:

Clean water and other resources, global warming

Elder Care Options

Head Start

Life Coaches

Business Coaches (Brian Tracy, et al)

Self-Help gurus (Anthony Robbins, et al)

Inspirational Speakers (Zig Ziglar, TD Jakes, et al)

Animal welfare and humane education (not “animal rights”)

Habitat for Humanity

Religious causes (non-violent only: missions, inter-faith pursuits, introductions to other faith traditions)

Natural Resources causes (Clean Energy, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, et al)

NASA

Progressive candidates for public office

Christian writers and pastors

Clients who need to have e-books written, ghosted, improved or proofread

Clients who have products or services that truly improve their customers’ lives or businesses (apps developers, spas and salons, weight loss clinics, et al)

Clients who need on-hold messages written for their company phone systems or telemarketing scripts for their in-house or off-shore marketing teams



2.) Driven to help others, with the ability to pay what exemplary copywriting is worth based on long-term ROI

Has researched professional fees for exemplary copywriters and understands what the profession entails and appropriate fees for various services; expects to pay an appropriate price for a professional copywriter and exemplary result. (Example: High- profile copywriters charge from $1.00 to $1.65 or more per word. This is not a typo. I don’t charge anywhere near that much, so the ideal client knows they’re getting a heck of a deal when I charge just $75/hour and produce at least 500 words every hour after I’ve reviewed the source materials and am ready to rock and roll.)



3.) Insecure or unsure about his or her own writing or communications abilities because of unhappy experiences in school English, business communications, and other communications classes or because of ESL difficulties, dyslexia, etc.

Although great at what they do for a living, most business owners aren’t well-trained writers and haven’t the time (or the inclination/passion) to become copywriters for their own purposes. Some sweat bullets writing a memo; others fret only when writing for their customers.

4.) Too busy running a business to be involved in the day-to-day aspects of public outreach via written communications: sales pieces, web content, brochures, flyers, slogans, taglines, articles, blogs, Social Media outreach, etc.

Self-explanatory.

Projects I rarely accept include: banking, finance, IT, real estate, insurance, tele-communications industry writing. If I’m not able to find passion for a project, I won’t engage in it because clients deserve a passionate provider who will invest his or her heart 110%.

Saw Our OIder Sis This Evening for a Few Hours! ZOWIE!

Seeing my older sister is always a rare, chance occurrence. She lives and works in Rochester, 50 miles south of here, and when she does have any spare time (which is rare) she usually heads south, not north, to see her daughter and grandson in Portland. So it was a rare treat to see her today for a few hours.

I'm multi-tasking this week: I'm critter-watching two households while the critters' owners are at the beach. They'll be back tomorrow, which is a good thing. I love watching critters, of course, but I know they prefer to have their own people at home and not me!  It has been fun, though, to drop in on them and take care of their needs and spend time petting them so they don't feel abandoned.

On other fronts:

I've met with a fellow who is going to design a new website for me.  I'm going to write it but he's going to make sure it ranks very high at Google and other places so people who are looking for freelance writers, ghostwriters or copywriters can find me fast.  He's very, very good at what he does. If you need someone like him, let me know and I'll refer you to him. You won't be disappointed and he's very reasonably-priced for the value you get. Seriously. I spent two hours with him yesterday seeing his many sites and their rankings at Google and I was blown away.

Guess that's all for now. 

Saw WE BOUGHT A ZOO! Terrific Movie for All Ages

Don't blink...or you'll miss the serval in the movie. I was so surprised and pleased to see one in it...

Very enjoyable movie. Go see it. You won't be disppointed. Take a hanky, though!!!

FROM GODVINE--Get a Hanky!

Can You Smell That?



A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery.


Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency caesarean to deliver couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.


At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.


"I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."

Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.


"No! No!" was all Diana could say.


She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.


As those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Dana's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially 'raw', the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.


There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted. Though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero.


Five years later, Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.


One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, "Do you smell that?"

Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."

Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"


Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain."


Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God does when you lay your head on His chest."


Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children.


Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of the first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it was His loving scent that the little girl was remembering.


God is not a knife edge to carefully balance on lest one falls into the abyss. God is an infinite plain, no matter which way you fall, he catches you.

Just Saw Spielberg's WAR HORSE -- It's a MUST SEE!!!

WAR HORSE is possibly the best movie I've ever seen. I expect nothing less from Steven Spielberg, of course, but I think he has out-done himself this time.

Go see it. Take a hanky.

Now I'm going to have to get the book, too...



Kris

Copywriter/Wordsmith for Hire -- by the Hour, Day, Week or Project

Click ad to read more easily...

Busy, Busy Weeks Ahead

"Ask and ye shall receive."

Boy howdy!

My next several months are going to be crammed full. I'm going to be working waaaaaaaayyyyyyy more than 40 hours a week on numerous projects and commitments. Networking is helping; word of mouth is helping; referrals are helping; my marketing materials are helping.
I pray for the strength to get through the next weeks with full energy, resilience and a sound mind! 

Right now I'm working on a project for a local gentleman who wants to release his book about growing up in the Ozarks many years ago.  He has written a real keeper. I'm also finishing up another local lady's book about growing up in the deep South before and during the civil rights movement. She was smack dab in the middle of it, on the receiving end of the animosity.  If you've seen or read THE HELP, you have some idea. This women's story, too, is riveting.

Both of these folks have photos to accompany their words, which makes their manuscripts all that much more riveting: readers get to see the privations with their own eyes. I hope both books help explain and describe what growing up "dirt poor" really means. I hope it shows, too, the nobility of these folks to keep putting one foot in front of the other, day after weary day, to keep a roof over their heads, heat in the stove, and food in their stomachs.  Both books make me want to stand up and salute!

I have a feeling my publisher may want both of them...

Battle Hymn of the Republic Done RIGHT!

Thanks to Nancy Graf for forwarding this to me...

http://www.greatdanepro.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm

WHY I LOVE GOATS!!! Thanks to Nancy Graf for this WONDERFUL LINK!!!

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/b4_EdJ-XkUA?rel=0

Picked up Some New Clients Today at a Networking Event

Woo hoo!  I picked up a couple (perhaps three) new clients today at a networking event at Forza in Lakewood.  And at least twelve of today's attendees agreed to post my copywriting flyer (the one with tabs; I sent them to some of you) where they have businesses so I can get some local clients.  (All of my clients currently are virtual clients in other states and countries.)  I will pay the flyer posters 10% of any project I get through their efforts if they put their names and phone numbers on the back of each of the tabs so I know who refers new customers to me.  The same goes for any of you reading this who are willing to post flyers for me. I've already paid Matt Leger $25 for a $250 project he referred to me, so he can confirm the veracity of this offer.

I also am getting a TV-quality static ad designed by a professional, one that can be posted at Forza for very little per month. I'm looking forward to having that happen just after the first of the year. If you'd like the same deal, contact shon@defaction.com. Tell him I sent you.  He's really good.  I've seen his stuff.  I'll attach what he did for me right here:

A lot of the people at the network meeting have had him do their business cards and other printed materials. 

2012 is going to be my breakthrough year; I can feel it.  I'm going to put myself out there in a big way (locally) and see if I can get off the online freelance websites for good this year. They are catering to people who don't care if they get great material as long as it's cheap.  I don't do "cheap". What I write works. It resonates and converts. That's what matters most to reputable businesses.

Some start-ups don't know what good copywriting is or what it costs, so they make mistakes and get burned by bottom feeders. THEN they come to me.  I listen and counsel and salve wounds; then I explain the obvious: you get what you pay for. It's as true in copywriting as it is in any other industry.  Pay low, expect to have to replace it sooner. (In the case of copywriting, expect to replace it almost immediately unless you want to cripple your business!)

I re-wrote an insurance agent's site a couple years ago. I usually don't do insurance sites but I felt so sorry for this fellow, I just had to. He got ripped off royally by an off-shore ESL (really crappy) writer; I couldn't even understand many of the sentences that were on his website, they were so poorly written.  It was just pathetic.  He didn't know what to do. I did.  And I did it.  He practically genuflected (virtually).  He was SOOOO appreciative.  I think it's one of the few times I got a bonus on a project; he was simply amazed by the difference. It wasn't easy making a silk purse out of that particular sow's ear, but it felt great to do it.

Do Well By Doing Good--Help Hungry People all Year Long

Thansks to Garry Stutz for this link...

http://garry.networkgoodness.org/

Read is and Celebrate God's Love (Through His Sons and Daughters)

http://www.foxsportshouston.com/12/18/11/Joyful-day-for-Marines-widow-at-Texans-g/landing_texans.html?blockID=629146&feedID=3714

FROM GODVINE--Get a Hanky!

The Christmas Truce (Thank you to Godvine.)



This is a true story. Perfect to share for this time of year.


It was December 25, 1914, only 5 months into World War I. German, British, and French soldiers, already sick and tired of the senseless killing, disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" along two-thirds of the Western Front (a crime punishable by death in times of war). German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, "Merry Christmas."


"You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.


A shudder ran through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court martial. By March 1915 the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, fifteen million would be slaughtered.


Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Truce, several times and was startled by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. "Even more startling than the number of requests I get is the reaction to the ballad afterward by callers who hadn't heard it before," said the radio host. "They telephone me deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking, `What the hell did I just hear?' "


I think I know why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, "This really happened once." It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, out of range of the TV and newspaper stories that tell us how trivial and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different.

Need proof this really happened?  Here you go.  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-christmas-truce

Laverne and Shirley

Arghhh!  Trying to get Laverne and Shirley to "focus" on food long enough (off-leash) so I can trim their hooves is ... insane.  But that's what I tried to do today because I hate tying them to a post and upsetting them. (Not that they get all that upset tied to a post, but I like to do what I have to do with the least amount of wrestling I can get away with.) I got three hooves on both trimmed; I'll try to get the last two (one each) done tomorrow or sometime later this week.

I cannot believe we are just eight days away from Christmas and fourteen days away from 2012.  I'm not in the Christmas spirit yet; it isn't cold enough or dreary enough outside to warrant this date!  I hope the wee ones' Christmas pageant will kick me into high gear...  I'm also slated to go see OLIVER at the Lakewood Playhouse this week. I'm looking forward to that!  The rest of the family (sis, niece and grandkids) all went to see PETER PAN live last night at the Tacoma Musical Theater.  I declined; two plays in one week won't work for me.  I need my beauty rest... for what it's worth (not a helluva lot, judging by gazing into the mirror!).

I hope you're warm, cozy, ready for Christmas and very, very happy.

Good News...

Good News!!!

I'm slated to be making a lot more money from January to mid-May (in another realm) in addition to being a home-bound a copywriter. That's all I'll say about it, but I am really jazzed. 

I can put away most of the money I make during that time toward an emergency fund while getting my (one) credit card squared away. How cool is that? Best of all: if I do a good job--and of course I plan to--I'll be able to land the same gig every year for as long as I want it!

Thank You, Jesus!  It is a real blessing and a dream come true!

Spread the Word--The Keystone Pipeline is a Disaster in the Making--Call Your Representatives NOW!

asknreceive1-1054310  wrote (prophetically)


The Keystone Dirty Tar Sands XL Pipeline is a disaster in the making. Millions of Americans have been on top of this project and screaming from the top of our lungs that more study needs to be done on the value vs. ultimate cost spectrum of the equation. Anyone who tells you the project will employ 20,000 American workers is flat out lying. Anyone who tells you it's going to be the proverbial Messiah for our economy is flat out lying.

The most workers projected for this environment trainwreck of a pipeline to ship oil from Canada all the way to the refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast is estimated at 6,000, and most of those workers will either be current employees of the Canadian oil company in the form of engineers, inspectors, etc. and then they'll give a few Americans the honor of digging the massive hole through the ground. The project has a timeline and then will end.

More importantly, once the crudest of all crude oil is running through that pipeline, it will be an enormous hazard for carcinogens in the air and in the ground waters where the wastewater will pollute the water used for irrigation of crops, for herds and for the people relying on that water for drinking purposes. Yes, let's ask Canada to explain how the First Nation people who are already victims of Keystone feel about doubling of diagnosed cancers in their communities.

Let's also ask those same people how they feel about moose having 450+ times the acceptable amount of arsenic in their meat. Yes, let's ask those who are already victimized by Keystone to speak up. Wait! They already have, but you won't hear that in the news.

Let's ask the 20 million people who will be directly affected by this pipeline project how they feel about a dirty tar sands oil pipe running under their rivers, lakes, aquifers, through fault lines like the one in Oklahoma where they just experienced a 5.6 magnitude earthquake just 30 miles from the planned pipeline route, and everywhere in between.

Let's also ask them if temporary work for a REAL projected number of no more than 6,000 people on a pipeline that is guaranteed to not only RAISE their oil prices but is also guaranteed to push nasty crude to the Gulf of Mexico where it will be refined, as best it can be, and then shipped off to Europe or elsewhere. Don't believe me? Do the research.

There are already tar sands being funnelled here and refined here, but we haven't seen one red cent returned to us in either gas price decreases or. . .wait for it. . .jobs.

I find it always helps to dig deep into such important matters before I start parroting anyone like Boehner, who has told you a big ugly lie as it relates to the prospect of 20,000 jobs. If he and they lie about that, what else do you think they haven't told you?

I'd like to help by providing a link to information about the First Nation people who are fighting for their lives and for the lives of all others who will be victimized if this legislation is approved by Obama, but Newsvine doesn't allow that. Just Google daily kos first nations herculean fight to stop the canadian tar sands project. . .read the truth of how ugly TransCanadas tar sands pipelines are, and read further to understand this oil was NEVER meant for you and me.

Even if Obama decides to rubber stamp this rubbish, even he must still go through the State Department. I'll be praying for saner heads to prevail. Peace be with you all, Fellow Americans.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/05/1042257/-The-First-Nations-herculean-fight-to-stop-the-Canadian-tar-sands-hydra

BRRR!!!! Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Goodness!  32,632 visitors to this blog since its inception. I am blessed! THANK YOU, ALL!!!!


Laverne and Shirley are woolly this time of year. Putting my hand on their backs is like placing my hand on an Alaskan parka: plush, deep-piled and soft.  They don't act even remotely cold, even though I often have to break the ice that's in their water trough so they can partake. It's amazing how different they feel, winter to summer. Good thing!

I'm feeding the birds and squirrels that are still lingering in the area.  The temps are reaching 40 degrees in the daytime here. The sun comes out, and the critters come out looking for something to eat.  I put out hardened corn and pumpkin seeds for the squirrels and suet and bird seed for the small birds. I put out anything else that the crows will eat.

Every time I head out to the goat shed, Ashley (my  rescued-as-a-kitten 15 1/2 year old long-haired grey and black cat, a Persian) accompanies me. He watches to be sure I get out and back safely this time of year.

Of all the cats I'd expect to find in a "barnyard," Ashley is not one of them. He looks like he belongs in a Fancy Feast commercial. He's exquisitely gorgeous.  I think of Eva Gabor in Green Acres whenever I see him ambling out to escort me to the goat pen:

"New York is where I'd rather stay
I get allergic smelling hay
I just adore a penthouse view
Darling, I love you but give me Park Avenue."

You are my cat!
Goodbye to all that!
Green Acres, we are here!
(thump thump)

Ashley is the world's scared-iest cat--very timid.  But boy howdy, if something goes awry--if a goat accidentally steps on me and I yell, "Ouch!" Ashley becomes a feline battering ram: he immediately assaults whoever causes the insult. One time I accidentally stepped on his brother/litter mate Archie. Ashley came out of nowhere and threw his body against me, trying to get me OFF him before I could even react and step away.  He's a security guard to beat all security guards!  I love him to death for it, too.

On another note: The Winterfest event (charity Christmas event for 500 under-privileged families in our county which my sister co-hosts at PLU and shops for every year ) was fabulous again this year. I served as a greeter/family router (pointing them to people who could check them in and give them their big empty bags, which they fill with clothes, toys for their wee ones, toiletries and other goodies) for the first two hours and as a host at the "Gifts for Parents" table for two hours.  I spent four hours helping set up and an hour helping clean up, too.  We forgot to take cameras this year or I'd have some photos to post here.  Sorry about that.

I haven't had enough income this month again, but I brought in more than enough last month, so I'll be okay (except that I can't buy gifts--bummer!) in December. 

I have an interview on Friday; if I get the additional gig  I'll be well-enough employed to cover all my basic expenses for the next several months and everything I make as a copywriter can go into savings so I'll have an emergency fund built up by mid-summer again.  I may also be tapped to do the youth marketing at church from home here(God/church council willing) so that will pay an additional monthly stipend, too.

Multiple streams of income is the watch word of this repressed economy, so I'm looking for ways to make it happen from home.  I'll have book royalties every three months, too, so...  little by little, it's all coming together!  I feel very blessed.

What else? I watched Jamie practice basketball tonight. It's such a kick watching seven year old kids play sports.  Jamie and Casey (age 11) play sports all year long: soccer, basketball. Wendy keeps them busy and active; they aren't an ounce overweight.  I want to get (or build) a Trek desk so I can say the same thing a year from now.  I'm going to ask George Rebar (Wendy's dad) if he'll build me a desk that a treadmill will fit under so I can walk (slowly) while I work. I hate being this sedentary; it isn't good for me. I've been thinking about this for a year now. It's going to happen in early 2012.  I'm determined that it will.  I can get a used treadmill at craigslist for a song.

I guess that's about all for this time.  I hope you're enjoying this festive, sacred season.  I don't know how it got here this fast, but it'll be gone before we know it... so enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!!

Memories...

I was 12 or 13 years old the first time it ever occurred to me that my thoughts weren't all-but-broadcast to everyone around me. It was quite the revelation. I've never forgotten what a shock it was.

I remember the occasion very, very well. I was in the old house in Cle Elum (the one that had been a two-story stagecoach stop a hundred years before; alas, it was later torn down), thinking truly noble, wonderful, worthwhile thoughts--which I did quite a lot at that age--when it hit me: "No one can hear what I'm thinking!"

Then I began to consider what my family did hear from me whenever I opened my mouth: mostly reactionary or inane crap... never ever noble, worthy thoughts!

I was horrified. It was no wonder they didn't seem to think I was worth listening to!  MY real life source was all inside my head, or written down on paper in some notebook or journal! It wasn't that I was being secretive; it's just the way I communicated best. It always has been. Why?

My home was a boisterous, shock-and-awe kind of place. Dad was a Tasmanian Devil kind of guy--always whirling, twirling (not literally--emotionally), commanding, demanding... loud, profane, not interested in anyone else's opinion or druthers. He was large and in charge.  No one ever finished  a sentence in our house--someone else "got" what we were saying (or couldn't care less about what we were saying) before we reached the end of our sentences and interrupted with their next thoughts. It was insane!  I likely became a writer early on so I could get  complete thoughts and sentences down without being interrupted or minimized!

What's sad is I'm all too often guilty of the same thing--saying only inane, reactionary things--when I open my mouth these days. I still keep the loftier thoughts locked up. What people hear are momentary reactions, fleeting concerns, reactions to the latest stupidity spouted by politicians. 

Unless I take the initiative to plant myself in a chair and describe what I'm truly feeling and thinking--which takes time and enough "time out" to allow myself to respond (as opposed to simply "reacting")--what comes from me is mostly small talk... small indeed. And I loathe, loathe, loathe small talk.  Always have.  Talking about "nothing much" bores me to tears. Hearing about "nothing much" bores me to tears. All too often, Facebook and Twitter bore me to tears;I'm thinking of signing off from both of them.  I don't enjoy  chit-chat. I care about what matters. But what matters often upsets me because no one is listening to anyone else anymore, especially in the political realm. Mostly what seems to be happening there is mean-spirited vilification. Talking heads are making us all crazy, making us all feel we have something to lose by listening to the other side. It's like we have our own Cold War between the red and blue states; the other side is somehow un-American. What a bunch of malarkey.

From an early age I've always wanted to talk about the stuff that really matters.  My fondest memories are of lying in (or atop) sleeping bags on the front lawn in Cle Elum, looking up at the stars and pondering galaxies, God, alien life forms, and why it all seemed so impossible and yet so probable!  My brain was on fire. Nothing was off the table on those nights--my cousin Tim, or my friends from down the road, would lie awake till 4:30 talking, thinking, pondering...planning. There was nothing we couldn't imagine and nothing we couldn't do. We'd landed on the moon, for gosh sakes!  Nothing seemed impossible anymore.  I was lying in front of a stagecoach stop built in the 19th century looking up at a moon that had been walked on by a human being. It was insane! Insanely wonderful.

These days I wonder what we can do if we'd just stop taking pot shots at each other and start building something together. You know, infrastructure...clean energy factories...vehicles that run on something others than gasoline...families that spend time together...business and other relationships that are win-win for all concerned...

I know it's do-able. We're bright critters. If a golden retriever can rescue a bag of kittens from a highway; if a German shepherd will wet-nurse tiger cubs, if a gorilla in a zoo will care for a child who has fallen into its moat, why on earth can't human beings live up to the fine, upstanding title we've given ourselves as "apex" animals, as image-bearers of God?

I do think it's possible.  I'll never stop believing it's possible.  But like  Mark Twain, I'm beginning to think it's not going to happen in my lifetime--and that upsets me.  Twain wrote, "People call me a pessimist in my old age, but I'm not.  I am an optimist who did not arrive."

I get that.  We can do better. I know a LOT of people who ARE doing better.  It's time to put these people on the air and oust ones who are doing nothing but denigrating and belittling others to make themselves seem more righteous. 

I'm tired of the small mindedness I see scattered across the airwaves. We're better than that. We deserve better. Let's start acting like mature grownups and tackle the issues that trouble us the way we tackled landing a man on the moon--with optimism, mutual assistance and perseverance.  We can solve every problem we have because we've created every problem we have. Nature is for us. God is for us.  We have to be for ourselves as a species and as a chief architect of the future of this beautiful orb.  

Let's stop being so cranky and get cranking on what matters most.
 

Merry Kris Smith to All and to All a Good Night!

At a church Christmas Party two years ago (maybe three!)

Jamie and Casey feeding "reindeer" Laverne and Shirley last year

Flashback: Casey and Kris circa 2004 or 2005 at Christmastime



Holiday Gift: SERVAL SON AUTOGRAPHED BY AUTHOR -- SPECIAL OFFER

Order SERVAL SON direct from me before December 18th for $20 and I'll personalize the copy(ies) to whomever you want and ship them directly to you (or the gift recipient) as long as you both live in the United States. (Please Note: Christmas delivery NOT guaranteed unless you order by December 12.)

My email address is kristinemsmith @ msn DOT com (all one word). E me and I'll provide my snail mail address so you can send the $20 OR if you prefer to pay via Paypal, we can make those arrangements, too.



Use this link if you want to order direct from Amazon WITHOUT having me inscribe it: https://www.createspace.com/3654743 (You'll save $5 because the book won't be autographed.)


This offer is good until December 18th or until my home stash of SERVAL SON disappears. (I don't keep a lot of copies on hand.)


Tell your animal-loving friends about this offer, too. SOON!




Thanks!

Happy December 1st--Whatever Happened to January-November?!

I do not know where this year went. It just flew by. That's what happens, the older you get.  I know why, too.

When you're five, you have to wait one fifth of your entire life for the next Christmas. When you're sixty, you only have to wait 1/60th of your life! 

Christmas seems to come and go every few months now!  This would be okay if I had enough disposable income to invest in my loved ones, but alas... I don't... at least not this year, or last, or the six or seven immediately past. I expect 2012 will be a lot different, but it has been a long, dry spell, pretty much ever since returning to Washington State from California. 

But would I go back to re-capture the moolah? Not on your life! 

This has been one of the most wonderful nine years of my life. I've reconnected with my sisters, and especially with Jackie and her family. Laurel lives 50 miles away and, like me, owns her own business, so we only see each other about twice a year, but that's still a lot more often than I saw her during the entire 14 years I lived in Hollywood!

I have two goats I love, which wouldn't be the case if I still lived in a condo. I have new friends, a wonderful part-time gig as a nursery supervisor two days a week for a few hours each time, my own business, so little stress it hardly bears mentioning...  It's just way cool, all the way around!

A funny thing happened at church last weekend. Jennie was telling the wee ones the biblical story about the sheep and the goats. Of course, all the kids in her class know my goats, so they thought the goats got the raw end of the deal in the story!    When Jennie told me about it later, we both laughed.  She said, "It didn't go over real well. You should have sheep!"

The goats always got the shaft in biblical days. Remember the "scapegoat"?  The one the Israelites placed all their accumulated sins on and then sent out into the desert to be eaten by lions?  Exactly!  The sheep were shepherded, led, corralled, protected (at least until the day the perfect ones were sacrificed!); the goats just hung out. Oh, well... I'm making up for their rough treatment, big time!

My goats are so spoiled.  Whenever I step into the back yard they come screaming down the hill in my direction as fast as they can, bleating for attention.  They're "out to here" in goat goodies (carrots, onions, apples, broccoli, whatever I find at the store that's on sale) in addition to hay.  They look pregnant, especially Shirley. She's my "worker bee" in the blackberry field. She's still out there looking and nibbling, and there isn't much out there this time of year. Laverne is more selective-- and less wide as a result!

Jackie has my cold now.  (Or something worse. She has a really bad sore throat, too, which I didn't have.)  She stayed home today and is actually sleeping a lot.  (To get Jackie to lie down during the day is usually a miracle.  She cannot seem to sit still at any time, unless she's collapsed and exhausted at day's end.) Poor thing... She has a big gig she's responsible for next weekend, too, so I hope she gets over what she has a whole lot sooner than I'm getting over what I have. It was nasty...  I'm almost recovered now, but it has taken--what, two weeks?  At least!