Peering Through Life's Window

  My husband gave me a rose. I added water and the preservative that came with the flower. The next day the flower’s stem drooped, the bloom tilting toward the kitchen table. However, I was busy and didn’t throw it away. When I walked in the room the next morning, the rose stood straight and proud in the vase. Puzzled, I leaned down and studied the flower. I checked it later that afternoon, then another time early in the evening. After five days, the rose still stood upright on its stem, its petals only aging a tiny bit around the edges. Then, the rose had my curiosity. To learn why the rose wilted so soon then perked up, I asked several friends, who are more knowledgeable about flowers than I am. They couldn’t explain it. Finally, I called a well-known florist in Georgia. The people there had never heard of a fresh flower sagging. Maybe I wasn’t meant to understand the rose, but simply to enjoy it. Sometimes I slump like the rose with the strength to stand tall nearly gone from me...

A Warm Welcome to Lisa Lickel Lisa will give away either an e-Book or a print copy of Meow Matrimony , winner's choice. (U.S. residents only for print.) To enter to win leave a comment and an email address. Fancy Cats Psalm 104:24: How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Lisa tells us how she decided to write about cats and gives us a little information on Mau cats. I grew up with cats. I’ve loved them my whole life. Then I married a man who had dander allergies and didn’t want them in the house. I learned to love them vicariously. When I wrote my first mystery series, the Buried Treasure books, the heroine naturally had a cat. I focused on the names of the cats back then, gleefully choosing cats a history nerd teacher might like. Carranza was a hard-bitten male, a bruiser who had definitive likes and vociferous dislikes, but his heart was pure gold and he parented better than any stray mom. H...