Victoria Returns

A friend recently sent me an email to share the good news that Victoria Magazine is coming back this year in November. My reaction to the news surprises me immensely. A bubbling of joy surges out of nowhere and a huge grin creeps into the corners of my mouth.

I go immediately to my Google search bar and put in the words Victoria Magazine. The search produces a list of articles with the news of the magazine's merger between Hoffman Media and Hearst Publications. Among the list I see http://www.victoriamag.com/ and when I open the link, tears spring up as quickly as the site opens. I am puzzled.

During the era of the magazine - mid 90's to 2003 - there was a resurgence of Victorian art, clothing, home decor, and the likes. We all drug out our grandmother's lace doilies or bought them in quaint Victorian gift stores that abounded everywhere. We found chintz prints and made pillows, purchased flowered teacups and reveled in a lost age of charm.

But this is what puzzles me most. I wonder why I am so enraptured with this magazine coming back when my home looks a lot more like Pottery Barn than anything else these days. I've changed so much, and so has everyone else. As I ponder the whole idea, a voice from somewhere whispers, "It isn't the style of the Victorian Age that makes your heart sing, Cathee." "It's the simple beauty, the capture of quiet moments, the detail of a single setting for afternoon tea."

I don't know what you'll be this time around, Victoria, but I do hope you haven't lost your loveliness, your penchant for sweet modesty, your focus on the fading grace of enjoying simple pleasures. I look forward to those same lush arrangements of flowers and objects, quotes from literature, thoughts about life that provide a sumptious picnic for my soul. As I feast my eyes on the image in this article, I hear you say, "I'm back," and my heart skips a beat as if I've run into an dear old friend I haven't seen in a long time.

Zerrissenheit

After two years of writing, the book is finished. My partner, Fran, and I are dancing circles in the grass, grinning and spinning and thanking God that it's finally off to the publisher. Perhaps it will be available for you to give as a Christmas gift this year - to your dearest and most loved friends.

What is the book about? It's about women - although we think men would also get a lot out of reading it - and it centers on the big question: "Since the world assumes you will be there to take care of everybody, who takes care of you?"

Labeling it as a "self-help" book, or even a "self-care" book is not really a fair assessment. It's so much more than that. It's about living your life to its fullest, becoming the embodiment of your most awesome, and best dreams. It's about the life Jesus came to give all of us.

Is it a religious book? We hope not! Because we aren't religious. We're alive. We're having fun too, and that's just not allowed if you're religious. (If you don't believe us, just ask a few Pharisees.)

Thresholds and Passages is about reclaiming the life that was bequeathed to you at birth. And as you read about how to take possession of what is already yours, you'll also learn how to combat Zerrissenheit. That's a new word I learned today. It's German and it means "torn-to-pieces-hood," as in shattered, broken, confused, bewildered.

We face centrifugal forces today that pull us away from a solid, peaceful center, and the really sad thing is, we often don't know we're headed for destruction until we wake up in the miasma and can't see our way through the labyrinth.

So...plan to get a copy of the book and find out some really good ways to make the journey not just more sane, but an adventure of epic proportion. We'll let you know as soon as it's available.

In the meantime, check our blog every so often and see what's drifted across our path. We probably shouldn't use the word "drift" because that seems to indicate random occurances. None of them will be by chance though - because nothing is.

Cathee & Fran