As I had a birthday this past week, I began to think about the significance of such an event. After all, that day does occur once a year, whether we like it or not. So why should we even think about it?
For me, a birthday heralds taking stock of where I am and where I want to go. Like the New Year you ask? Yes and no. Yes, because the new year does cause us to look back and hopefully, to look to the future. And no because a birthday is so much more personal.
A birthday is in many ways a rebirth. It is a thankfulness for the time behind us, all those milestones that add up to a life lived to that point. A life well lived or a life lived not quite to the fullest.
But that birthday holds a promise as well. A promise to continue striving to do better in all areas of achievement, to continue to grow emotionally and intellectually, to continue to become better acquainted with oneself and those we love.
So, a birthday? No big deal. Just another day. I think not. It is an opportunity to deal with the very DNA of our lives and hopefully become all the better and stronger for having put in the effort.
No, Dear Reader, I haven't lost it. Know why? Because I jot it down! Yes, today we'll focus on the art of taking and keeping notes. Sounds boring? Not in an author's life.
Just about every author I know keeps a little notebook somewhere handy wherever s/he goes. I certainly do and pull it out of my handbag or pocket more than I thought I would.
It's funny about nuggets of notions or tiny smoke swirls wafting around one's mind. Many times they deliver flashes of clarity, and an idea is born. As simple and complex as that.
When such a phenomenon occurs, you have to be ready to write, or the idea or nugget can evaporate back into the smoke and be gone forever.
An illustration you ask? Okay, here's one: As I splashed along through the surf on Clearwater Beach early one morning, my thoughts were of a pelican. It was the pelican I was using in the book I was writing, One Pelican at a Time.
I knew the pelican had to be different, recognizable from all others, because Bella and Britt, the heroines in the story, needed to know him immediately on sight. Out of the smoke swirl came a pelican with a crooked beak. An aha moment. It had to be jotted down or could be gone forever.
Now granted, that's a simple illustration, but one nonetheless. So many ideas come to an author, s/he has to be ready at a pen's click to put it to paper (or iPad, iPhone, etc.).
Jotting had become a way of life for me in a way I never thought it would. Now that it's a part of my DNA, well, it's part of my DNA!
Try jotting. You'll find it organizational at worst and inspirational at best!
There's a smartphone application for just about everything these days. Of course, writers love the one for children's books and the promise of more of them.
But now the FBI has created one for parents and law officers: the Child ID app. If the worst (God forbid) happened and one's child disappeared, this app contains all the information law officers would need to begin searching.
The app provides a place to store a recent photograph of your child and identifying information for easy access in the midst of a crisis. "If they had all the information in one place, it makes it so much easier," said FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault.
Another feature includes a tab that emails the information to law enforcement. And there are tips on keeping children safe and what to do in the first few hours that a child goes missing.
For now, the app is available only to iPhone users. It's free to download from the App Store on iTunes. But plans are under way to expand the FBI Child ID app to other mobile devices.
For those without a smartphone, the FBI provides free child identification kits. They include your child's fingerprints, DNA and a spot for a recent photo and identifying information. The kits are equally effective as the app, Breault said, adding that all parents should have their child's fingerprints on hand just in case.
It is, these days especially, incumbent on us as a whole national community, to do our part to keep kids safe. I applaud the FBI for taking this initiative to help us achieve this basic expectation concerning the safety of our children.
