I love red poppies! They are scattered strategically around my house in various arrangements. In my office and entry way, etched into a glass plate and painted on a porcelain jug. A beautiful watercolor featuring the paper-thin red poppies adorns the wall in my dining room. These blood-red beauties are my all-time favorite flowers. Like life itself, they are fragile. Don’t even consider picking one—the bloom will bow its precious head and die within minutes of being plucked. Continue reading →
Category: Random Ramblings
Miscellaneous collection of stories
The Birds Are Still Singing
Our feathered friends are still singing!
Today, their melodious songs are unmistakably loud—and persistently cheerful, just like any other day. Two of our resident squirrels pause for a moment to tease the nesting mockingbirds but quickly return to stealing nuts and seeds from the swinging feeders. We strategically placed the feeders out of reach of the squirrels, but the furry rascals manage to find a way in! Annoying the birds has become the playful critters’ daily ritual in and around the magnolia and crepe myrtle trees. As I glance up at the majestic magnolia, I note dozens of bulging buds, announcing their readiness to burst into flower. Of course! It’s almost May—the month the magnolias bloom every year. Continue reading →
What Will Your Take Away Be?
How are you using this stay-at-home time to think about your future?
Will you make changes going forward? What will they be?
I’ve been knocked to my knees or had the stuffing knocked out of me many times, humbling me and causing me to rethink my priorities, my lifestyle and where I was headed. I’ve had to change direction. These are valuable tipping points. It’s happening again! And this will not be the last time, for undoubtedly there will be more times. It is ever so in this life. Are you feeling it too? Continue reading →
Fearless Friday
Are you superstitious? Personally I’m not, but some people are and they tremble at the very thought of anything that relates to the number thirteen—hotel room numbers, floors in a building, street addresses, dates on the calendar, and even the military time of 1300 hours! I’m sure you can conjure up your very own connotation of the number thirteen.
Today is Friday Thirteenth, and as if that isn’t enough to unsettle those of you who are overly superstitious, there’s a new bully on the block terrorizing mankind. Covid-19 is on the move, swirling its evil tentacles around the globe, wreaking havoc with human health, creating turmoil wherever it goes, striking fear into the hearts and minds of millions the world over, and infecting thousands with its virulent virus. It’s all part and parcel of The Life and Times of Now! Continue reading →
My Book Review from Kirkus
I’m thrilled to announce that Kirkus has reviewed my book and you can read their assessment below. I feel the review is an accurate description of the message I dreamed of portraying through the stories in my book. This link will take you directly to the review as published in their site.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anthea-gillian-tripp/my-soul-sings-for-you
MY SOUL SINGS FOR YOU
SPIRITUAL PEACE IN THE LIFE AND TIMES OF NOW
BY ANTHEA GILLIAN TRIPP RELEASE DATE: SEPT. 18, 201
Book Review
A motivational guide to simpler living that taps into its author’s experiences.
In her attractive nonfiction debut, Tripp draws in part on her time in East Africa in the 1950s, recalling some straightforward advice she was given about hippos and alligators. Gators, she was told, are very dangerous and live in swamps—so stay out of swamps if you don’t want to get eaten. That advice is typical of her direct approach. “Please don’t overlook the wisdom in simplicity,” Tripp writes in a sentiment that runs throughout the book. “If you don’t want to set yourself up for pain, don’t go where you know the potential for pain exists. If you don’t want to be eaten by alligators, do not venture into the swamps, at least not willingly.” She calls her book an “anthem to my Creator” and draws heavily on her life story, emphasizing optimism and flexibility in the face of life’s uncertainties. “I’ve learned always to expect the unexpected,” she writes, “and to smile at my Creator’s sense of humor.” Her book frankly acknowledges that modern life seems designed to attack and destroy peaceful simplicity. She reflects on how plugged-in she once was to that world, with feeds and notifications constantly bombarding her on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo, and elsewhere until Tripp felt like she was “ADHD on steroids.” She bravely took a step that others only dream about: “I announced on my Facebook profile page that I was reining in my activity on social media to passionately pursue the business and personal goals aligned with my purpose.” Through life lessons and her Christian insights, she seeks to provide antidotes to that continual noise and chaos. Her narrative voice is inviting; her candid optimism will likely comfort even her non-Christian readers, though her sentiments can range from the biblical—“Love never fails”—to the familiar-but-ridiculous: “That which doesn’t kill us can make us stronger.” She urges people never to underestimate the power of prayer or the value of friendship, and such ideas, though commonplace, are always worth repeating.
A calming and gently thought-provoking reminder that the simplest wisdom is often the truest.
Be the Voice of Calm
Stay calm and carry on was an encouraging announcement on a poster from back in 1939. It was created by the British government to raise public morale when mass air attacks on its cities were widely predicted during World War II.
Staying calm was good advice then, and it’s just as relevant today. In times of trouble and turmoil, we need to keep our wits about us. All of them. We must think reasonably, rationally and creatively when the storms of life hit. We humans don’t behave at our best when we’re panicked. Continue reading →
Alone. Not Forsaken.
Maybe it was the faint click as they closed the front door. Perhaps it was my heightened intuition or merely an uncanny coincidence. I can’t say for sure what caused me to wake up with a start. I could see the landing light shining onto my feather eiderdown through a crack in the door, which was always left ajar at my request. The shaft of light was immediately reassuring, so I pulled back the bed covers, slipped my feet into the cozy slippers beside the bed, and headed for the bathroom just in case that was the reason I’d woken up. I wondered what time it was. It felt as though I’d barely got into bed, but perhaps I’d slept longer than it seemed. Continue reading →
Every Vote Counts and Each Soul Matters
The following is a chapter from my book, My Soul Sings for YOU, written and published in 2019 …..
How do you feel about elections? For many years I had to sit on the sidelines, unable to participate in any election, as I was not yet a citizen of the United States. Neither had I ever voted in the UK, my birth country because I left before voting age. I was nineteen years old when I moved to the U.S. and at that time in the UK, the voting age was twenty-one. I sort of fell between the cracks.
So, when I finally was naturalized as a citizen, I literally couldn’t wait for the next election so I could have a voice. I was thrilled the first time I cast my ballot.
I love to vote. I consider election day one of the “high” days. It always feels so good to exercise my privilege to cast a ballot for candidates of my choice, and I especially enjoy being able to do it early to avoid the craziness of the official day. I’m so grateful for the freedom to vote my conscience with no fear of coercion, no mandate to choose a designated candidate, and no worry of personal reprisal for my selection, except possibly some sneers or jeers from those who ardently oppose the candidates whose names I checked on the ballot.
Does it seem to you that the tone of elections has intensified, and the rhetoric become more hateful with each passing year? Have you noticed that the campaigning starts earlier and earlier and dominates the news long before the actual day to vote? Despite all the increasingly desperate and intense attempts from candidates to garner votes, along with the incessant chatter of mass media and political spin artists, we thankfully reside in a country where we, the people, still elect our governing body by casting a ballot. I thank God for that freedom. Around election time, I always think about those souls who shed precious blood in bygone times, to secure the right for each of us to vote our conscience.
A Closer Look at the Author
A deeper dive into my thoughts.
While I love people and am considered outgoing, friendly and sociable, I value time alone—time to be still and just be. In the silence of solitude is where I process deep thoughts and reflect inwardly on a wide variety of circumstances and situations that I encounter or observe in life.
As a result, a great deal of thought and expression is woven into the pages of My Souls Sings for You, and in the nine chapters in the book numerous topics are covered—ones most prevalent in the minds of so many people in the life and times of now. Some may see the book as the way I view life, or my philosophy on living. Continue reading →
My Soul Sings for You
.
Earlier this week, my publisher Westbow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, alerted me that they had submitted my book files to the printer for formatting, and that the official publish date of the book was 18th September 2019. I am delighted to reveal the title and its accompanying tagline.
My Soul Sings for You
Spiritual Peace in the Life and Times of Now
Publishing this 356-page book has been a unique journey that has challenged me as a writer and a person at each step of the process—actions that included writing, editing, selecting cover graphics, interior chapter graphics, creating unique captions to each graphic, as well as reading the entire book numerous times. It all added up to a lot of planning and decision-making amid intermittent periods of waiting patiently as my publisher performed their part in the production process. Continue reading →