Introducing Margaret’s Faith

You've been hearing me talk about Margaret's Faith - and promising it's upcoming publication - for way too long now.  Well if you follow "Author Beth Durham" on Facebook you will have seen the announcement earlier this week that the books have arrived and I’m now delivering them to the retail outlets.  That’s a very exciting moment, if a nerve-wracking one.  Anytime I set one of my creations out on its own there’s a bit of unease as I wait to see if it will succeed or fail; if it will be loved or hated.  Well Margaret’s Faith is so special to me that those feelings are really compounded.   

Over the next few weeks I’ll share a little more about how this book came about and just what it’s all about.  Today I just wanted to let you know that the day has finally arrived.

Way back in December 2017 I shared this blog about Why I Write.  That article talked about Plans for Emma but my purpose is unchanged.  In fact, that article also mentions a trilogy that I have about ½ finished.  Well, you guessed it, Margaret’s Faith is book 1. 

This story is about a mountain girl, but she flees her mountain heritage and it doesn’t take her long out in the wide world to realize how good she really had it back on the Cumberland Plateau.  That’s is no doubt a theme that will ring true with many of you – as it does with me.  I would love for a young reader to learn a lesson from Margaret’s dissatisfaction and eventual rebellion and not have to suffer as this character did.

The books are available now at Hall’s Family Pharmacy in both Jamestown and Clarkrange.  And, you an order Margaret’s Faith at Amazon as either a paperback or ebook.

I truly want to know what you think of the book – and remember reviews are the very best way to let people far and near know about it so be sure to leave one on Amazon or Goodreads, or any other platform you use.

If you can’t get your own copy of the book before next Thursday, I’ll share a synopsis of the story then.

Learnin' Music

Music is a huge part of our mountain history.  It came with us from the old country and the sounds of Ireland and Scotland can still be heard in it.  It’s a subject I’ve visited here before (more than once actually) and no doubt I’ll light on it again somewhere down the road.  I’m not particularly musical although I’ve always longed to be able to make music as my ancestors did.  Childhood piano lessons have served a few congregations who were hard-up for a piano-player and my squeaky fiddle is a joy to me if no one else.  Still I am determined.  So I’m going to teach my children – or rather have them taught.

Ruthie kept asking to play my fiddle so a tiny instrument was under the Christmas tree this year.  Caleb got his guitar last Christmas and we’ve been making a little progress on it. 

T.E. Hixson was my Great-Great-Grandfather and he made instruments and taught and played with his children and grandchildren.  In fact, my grandmother remembers having child-sized instruments and hearing that with each birth he would declare what instrument the child would play and immediately begin making it for him or her.  These precious toys were so commonplace in their home and family that when they moved out of the house they left them behind. 

Grandpa Hixson’s children all played – in fact none of us knew my Great Grandmother (and his eldest child) could play until she was an old woman and I pulled out one of his fiddles.  She took it in her hands and said, “I don’t know if I can even pick out a tune anymore.”

As we embark on this journey of teaching and learning, practicing and improving I’m thrilled every time I hear them pick up their instruments and make their own little music.  And I can’t help but wonder what the Hixson home sounded like all those years ago.  As the day’s work wrapped up and a calm moment could be found, did different ones go back to their guitar, mandolin and fiddle?  Did one hear a few notes picked out and immediately want to join in?  Can’t you see the living room with one young son on his guitar and a sister comes trotting in, fiddle in hand?

Yet I know that they were not immediately proficient at the art.  There would have been years and years of missed notes, squeaky licks and slow improvement.  Were Grandma and Grandpa excited to hear their little musicians trying and trying?  Or did they grow tired of the noise and long to listen just to the birds or the crickets?   I imagine it was a little of both.  And how many times did Grandpa join in with the children?  Was he more often the instigator of their family-jam-sessions?

Of course their day without televisions and tablets, phones ringing or texts dinging surely made it easier to appreciate the efforts their children were putting into music.  It’s harder these days with so many things vying for our attention – not just the children’s attention but mine as well.  And it’s harder still because we have to find a teacher and get to him at the appointed hour.  How beautiful it is to imagine a father just slowly and quietly teaching his children, and teaching by example as he played each instrument.

I already know we’ll soon revisit the music of the mountains for I have a friend who has fiddles her grandfather handmade.  I’m really looking forward to getting that great story and sharing it with you!

A Suggested New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year!  This is the time of year that many of us look at our lives, consider our goals and make an ambitious plan for a happy and productive year.  We used to have a pastor whose first sermon almost every year was on the same topic, “Read your Bible”.  It’s a great topic, one I need to hear at least once a year, and one that never grows old.  Well I don’t know what topic the good Lord is urging for this Sunday but as luck would have it, my undated devotional gave me the same reminder recently. 

As I thought about the little lesson I read, and remembered those annual sermons, I again realized how blessed I am just to be able to read my Bible.  Yes, we live in a free country where our Bibles are within arm’s reach and visible for anyone to see (you can say “Praise The Lord” here).  And all books – including Bibles – are readily available to us (Amen and Hallelujah!).  Yet the most amazing fact of all is that according to “Our World in Data”, 83% of the world’s population can read! 

Now I’ve marveled here before about the wealth of books that we enjoy.  Many mountain homes historically were lucky to have just the one book (a Bible) and luckier still to have someone in the home that could actually read from it.  Learning to read was first and foremost a skill to allow you to read God’s Holy Word. 

Do you know the history of Bible translations?  An untold number of brave men and women gave their very lives trying to get the Bible printed in English.  In the 15th century the church felt the common man was either unable to read it with understanding, or maybe even undeserving of it.  Of course there are still struggles to get scripture translated into foreign languages. The Christian Post reported here in 2015 that 57% of the world’s languages still do not have a Bible translation.  That kind of seems unbelievable to us, doesn’t it?   

So we have the books and we have the skills – are we using them?  This would be a great time to start.

National Fast Day

I’ve been reading a journal written by a Confederate nurse (Kate:  The Journal of a Confederate Nurse, Louisiana State University Press, 1987) and she mentions a date as “following the last fast day”.  Well that was a term I had to research a little and what I learned was eye opening in so many ways.

During The Civil War both President Lincoln and President Davis declared days for their nation to fast  and pray for peace.  Nurse Cumming mentions the day the same way she would say “last Thursday” which seems to indicate she accepted the day and the directive from her president.  Bishop Meade of Christ Church in Millwood, VA delivered a lengthy sermon on that day, that was so well accepted that the Richmond Enquirer and Job Press was requested to publish it. 

President Lincoln declared “the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord”. (Citation)

Even from Colonial times the nation sought mercy and wisdom from The Lord by corporate prayer and fasting in times of drought, famine or Indian attacks.  In 1668 the Virginia House of Burgesses declared August 27th a “Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, to implore God’s mercy” (Citation) .

Now fasting has been a difficult practice for me to embrace – not because I’m so unwilling to give something up, but because I never want to stomp my foot at God and demand He act, and a hunger strike always seemed a little like that.  As I’ve studied, and frankly as the Lord has changed my heart and opened my eyes, I’ve come to appreciate that I can better hear His direction and I can better communicate with a Sovereign God if my mouth and my head are not filled with the concerns of this world. 

Reading about our people coming together to pray for peace and unity really moved me because we live in a time and a nation that can’t seem to agree on anything and where disunity seems to be our motto.  We have a national day of prayer that barely gets a mention and isn’t always attended by our presidents.  In fact a Google search for “National Fast Day” now yields results for the National Fast Food Day.  Does that strike you as ironic?

Reading this journal written more than 150 years ago and during such a hard time in the life of this young woman as well as our country is proving quite thought-provoking.  It sheds a light on how people thought during the nineteenth century, what their priorities and fears were and how they compare to us today.

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The Purposes of Fruit Jars

My husband and I each drink a protein shake most mornings and after trying whisks, shaker bottles and blenders, the best way I’ve found to mix and drink them is in a good ole’ Mason jar.  Well my Ruthie saw me mixing it today and asked “Are you gonna’ drink out of that jar?”  I’m not sure what about the upbringing I’m giving her would ever make her incredulous to drinking from a fruit jar but she found it so curious that she asked to try it herself. 

Now, we’ve talked here before about using and re-using stuff like mayonnaise jars and snuff glasses but canning jars are used around my house for all kinds of stuff.  Anything that needs to be contained, kept airtight or carried away is subject to a jar.  And of course that always includes a glass of ice tea you need to take to the field with you, or cold water to carry out to the yard and of course my daily protein shake.  But I also store grains and beans and even nails and screws in jars.  In fact, when they started putting mayonnaise and jelly in plastic jars they were best for the garage because they wouldn’t break and strew glass and nails all over a driving path. 

My son recently asked me after we sang along with John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”, whether he was a country boy.  Of course I told him he was – but now I’m wondering if these kids need to see more uses for Mason jars, grass string and duct tape!

Do you still use fruit jars for more than fruit?  I hope you’ll click on “Comments” below and tell me all about it.