Featuring two blogs this week with the Premio Dardos Award, an award that “acknowledges the values that every Blogger displays in their efforts to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values with each message they write.” First, my friend Erin Elizabeth Austin at  http://www.erinelizabethaustin.com/blog.html 

Erin’s Broken but Priceless Ministries blog is an encouraging read for anyone suffering from chronic illness. I met Erin at Blue Ridge Christian Writers Conference a few years ago. She is a lovely young woman with a passion to help others, sharing the wisdom gained from her own battles with unending health problems.

Another Blue Ridge friend, Sherry Carter, blogs at www.sherryjcarter.blogspot.com 

Sherry is, in her own words,  “a Reformed engineer – that’s me! After many years as an engineer at Johnson Space Center in Houston, God saw fit to yank me out of the Space world and sit me down in front of a laptop, writing about His Word.” Definitely an interesting background for a writer. Sherry won the Award for Excellence in Christian Writing at the Blue Ridge Mountains Writer’s Conference in 2006 for her Bible study, Storms of Life.  Check out the blogs and pass them on to others for a good dose of encouragement!

I traveled a different route to work today.

I knew the way but haven’t driven that direction in a while. When I veered off the exit, it kept winding around and around and for a moment, I was in unfamiliar territory. Not quite sure I had gotten off the right place. I kept going and soon came to familiar landmarks and all was well.

Are you on unfamiliar territory this week? I’m thinking of my friends who are attending the American Christian Fiction Writers conference, perhaps for the first time. Take heart, if you keep going, you will find things will become more familiar and…all will be well.

If you are pitching your work to an editor, remember the lesson of the APTD : ) page 39 in the summer issue of The Journal.  And remember wherever you are traveling, Jesus has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Viola Kalandyk Sowinski, World War II veteran, previous proprietor of the Kalan Hosiery Shop and the Central Fish Market in Albany, former employee at the Albany County Courthouse, Albany City Board of Education, and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

Otherwise known as my Aunt Viola.

One of my favorite relatives, Aunt Vi was an incredible woman. Hearing the sad news of her passing, my husband and I were sharing words that best described her. Gracious, kind, classy, stylish, charming, funny, adventurous, world traveler, honorable, intelligent, caring, sweet, loving. She had a fascination with languages, studying Russian, Spanish, Italian and German and in her later years learning…Chinese!

My aunt and cousins kindly took us under their wing when my parents passed away. We had the privilege of spending several holidays with them and loved to listen to their travel stories. Visiting England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, China, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and many states in the USA, she was my “aunt most traveled.” It always amazed me to see the pictures of her early years serving in the 8th Air Force based in High Wycombe, England under the command of General James Doolittle. An amazing woman who was ahead of her time. She portrayed a beautiful blend of old world gentleness, femininity and true bravado. I will cherish our last Christmas  together, remembering how she patiently helped us learn the correct pronounciation and meaning of several Polish words and phrases. 

Aunt Viola’s spirit lives on in her children, Valerie, Barbara and Chester. They orchestrated a beautiful funeral and gravesite service for their mother that truly honored her life, complete with Air Force military escorts in full dress blues and ending with the soulful sounds of the bugler playing Taps. My cousins follow in their mother’s footsteps, all having excellent careers, well-traveled, close knit, caring for each other and others along their daily path. My dear Aunt Viola, how we will miss you but you are and always will be a part of us.