Sixteen Candles

On March 8, 2024, I celebrate anniversary number 16 of my womanatwell blog. In my youth I had vague ideas of wanting to be a writer, but couldn’t put together what to write about, unlike so many writers who started making up stories at a young age. On the other hand, a load of life experiences can be helpful to feed the writing fires, and I have had plenty of those.

My parents stressed education and I had always liked animals, especially horses, so I thought I might like to be a veterinarian. Nothing stopped my progress and I indeed graduated in that field and practiced for several years. But in the meantime, I had experienced several very difficult personal situations and spent quite a few years searching for some kind of grounding. I thank the Lord that I eventually came back to my Christian religion. This experience made me aware of how likely it is that others may be in the same condition I had been, and it led me to learn more about theology, the study of God and religion, and evangelization, which is proclaiming the Truth.

As I try to explain aspects of my life, God is at the top of importance, and of course human relationships are a major part. But for interests, theology and evangelization are main categories, you could say. One result of my early theological study was writing the booklet called Heaven’s Passport. It’s small enough to produce on my own printer and I have distributed it in various places. Once I started my blog, I added the booklet digitally, offering it for free. Though the term “theology” sounds heavily academic, my booklet describes various facets of Christianity in what I think to be an understandable way.

Womanatwell has not had a lot of traffic like some, and I don’t have any other media sites. When I’ve commented on a few other websites, I have noticed an increase in visits here. I’ve mostly been happy doing the blog and am glad for an outlet for my writing.

When I started the blog, my overall desire to evangelize could probably be further categorized to three of my general interests: women’s issues; Latin America; and Creationism (which started in the form of Intelligent Design Theory).

I still am interested in women’s place in the Catholic Church, which is probably why I have posted so many links to the current project of Pope Francis, the Bishop’s Synod on Synodality. During this process, women have had a chance to express what they think and feel in a much freer atmosphere than previously. As I expected, many say that Catholic women need a much larger role in decision making and influence. I could write much more about this subject, but have found it is even more of a hot-button issue for me than the other ones and I know there are many very capable women out there working to improve this situation. I have made some comments along the way but have mostly felt it better to let cooler heads prevail.

My concern for problems in Latin America was expressed in a creative way in one of my fictional books, Unto Others. I care about people there, many of whom have such a hard life, and in real life I sponsored children from Colombia and El Salvador for some time through Christian agencies. I was able to make a few trips to Mexico and one to El Salvador, and I’m grateful I had these opportunities.

However, a person can only do so much, and I feel I was pulled toward the evolution controversy in order to use my gifts, at least for a time, to the best effect. As years passed, I shifted attention from the first two subjects much more into the scientific improbability of evolution. I figured my academic degrees in animal science and veterinary medicine would come in useful for this subject, and they certainly did. I even gave a few presentations to groups, although not everyone I approached would have me. The science can be difficult, but as in Heaven’s Passport, I have tried to explain the topics as simply as possible. I wrote two non-fiction booklets about Creation Biology and a fictional book, Biotech Swirl, to provide relevant information and perspective. They are all included on my blog.

But that time to study and promote Creationism came to a close and I wanted to focus more specifically again on theology, which includes studying philosophy as well. I have a certificate in theology (one year of college), but know that there is so much more to learn. I have worked on theology itself for the past few years, reading St. Thomas Aquinas and other authors, and have learned a great deal on my own. However, once again I’m feeling some kind of shift coming which may draw my attention elsewhere.

In the Book of James in the Bible, it warns against announcing what we will do today or tomorrow since we have no idea what will happen in the future. Instead we should say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15, NIV). In other words, we should always keep our eyes on the Lord, since situations can change in surprising ways. I’ve had a tendency to project whether I’m going to write more or not on the blog, but at this point I need to say, “I want to do what the Lord wills for me.”

The first book I wrote, Mission Faithful, was printed before I started the blog. I suspected it would not be accepted by a publishing house, so I self-published it. The story is about a secret group of Christians who pray together about various situations, seeking God’s direction for their actions.

In a way I feel like I’ve come full circle, because this first book still sticks with me. Though I’m not a member of a secret prayer group, or any prayer group at the moment for that matter, I want to pray to discern God’s will for my path from here.