CURIOUS!

My Google statistics and blog tracking indicates that my blog has recently received a considerable number of visits from Malaysia. I'm fascinated and curious.  If you can enlighten me, please do so.  
stcasebeer@gmail.com

A Christmas Request

My little Hangtown snow scene has enjoyed a staggering number of shares and traveled far and wide. With this in mind, it occurs to me; those of you who’ve enjoyed it might be kind enough to offer assistance.  Some of you are familiar with my novel, “Obie’s Quest”, which loosely chronicles the adventures of my ancestors in Hangtown during the gold rush.  While a few copies remain available on the internet, “Obie’s Quest” is now out of print. If anyone can provide me with the name of a reputable publisher who would accept and consider my manuscript, I’d be grateful.  SC

LITTLETHICKET 2013

My family hates it when I preach.  I’m not sure why they hate it, and I’m not sure why I do it. I’m clearly not a preacher. Sometimes I just can’t help myself. Would you like to be closer to God this Christmas?  It’s not complicated. The Bible tells us if we would have God’s boundless affection, there’s but one condition: We must love God without restraint and each other without exception. I realize that loving some of us is a tall order, but considering the reward, I suspect it’s worth the effort. And, just between you and me, God doesn’t expect us to be 100% successful.  He just wants us to try. I intend to try harder.  I suggest you do likewise.  SC

NOTE:

While loving everyone, unconditionally, without exception, at first appears daunting if not entirely impossible, that’s not necessarily the case.  We are all products of genetics, our environment, and our life experiences.  As a result, we are each very different.  Despite this obvious fact, we all have one thing in common.  Even in the case of the most seeming vile and depraved among us, that individual was once a vulnerable child.  To one extent or another, the essence of that innocent child remains.  While it’s often difficult to reconcile ourselves to what many people become, or at least appear to have become, with this insight and determination, it’s entirely possible to love who each of us was. We’re required to love the sinner, not the sin. That’s a start.  SC

http://www.shannoncasebeer.com/

CHRISTMAS 2013

This time of year I almost always feel a sense of urgency to pen a Christmas letter that captures like never before the essence of the season.  The written word has been around a long time.  The likelihood of mixing and matching words and creating something entirely new, innovative, and never before composed in the history of the written word, is about as likely as discovering the one true Santa immerging from your hearth on Christmas morning. For most of us, our most enchanting Christmas memories are from our youth.  To fully experience the magic and majesty of Christmas, it’s almost essential to approach it with a childlike faith.  The older we get, the more difficult that becomes.  In order to capture the true essence of Christmas, one must do it with a minimum of words, from the purest and most youthful depths of our heart.  That’s my hope for each and every one of us this season, that the spirit of Christmas can purify, cleanse and relieve us of our years of baggage, apprehension, and animosities, and allow us once more to experience the magical Christmas of our earliest memories, pure, simple, unadulterated, and awash in the warmth, joy, and unconditional fellowship that comes of an innocent heart and a childlike faith. Dear God, help us once more to approach, Christ, Christmas, and each other, with open arms, forgiving hearts, and the incorruptible innocence of our youth. With all appropriate affection, SC  

Have ya seen today's weather forecast for the Ozarks? I just saw a wholly worm, and he was stone cold dead! That can't be good!