Dear Reader:

I thought I had finished the Mitford Series with number 13 when I discovered, last week to my surprise, that a “last” novel (to date – number 14) had been added to the series. I am almost finished…but not quite there. (The book is supposed to come in today from amazon.com and I love the title “To Be Where You Are.”)

After leaving home to serve as an interim pastor, Father Tim and family have lived in the Outer Banks, followed by a year of house-sitting on a farm outside Mitford, then back home to Mississippi to re-discover some secret roots, ensued on the heels of a crime mystery in Ireland (the home country of Father Tim’s ancestors.) Jan Karon, the author, now finally brings Father Tim home again to the fictitious town of Mitford, nestled in the North Carolina mountains where it all started…returning full circle. (“To be where he is and where you are.”)

In life wherever we travel…aren’t we all returning home too? Eventually, at some point along our path, the beginning will start again…in our new home from whence we all came long before our memories. My bouts of homesickness will disappear forever.

I have to admit that I have not always ended up where I originally thought I was going (in my dreams from younger days) but I now know that by the end I will be exactly where I was always meant to be and I won’t have to worry about getting there too early or too late…I will definitely be on time for the last homecoming. We all will.

It is that “Not quite” in life that still reminds me there are more adventures waiting to be experienced, more people to meet that will influence my life, and more stories to tell. (Hopefully along the way I will, also, be a blessing to someone else.)

I read the other day that punctuation marks are on their way out. Mrs. McBride, my seventh grade English teacher, must be turning over in her grave. The one mark that is particularly singled out for removal is the period. (This makes me very sad because whenever I finish a blog post…I find such a sense of satisfaction in hitting the period key. Mission accomplished.)

The Washington Post (Jeff Guo) had an article recently with the title:

“Stop. Using. Periods. Period.”

“A few years ago, Ben Crair at the New Republic wrote a hilarious history of the period in our new age of instant messaging. “The period was always the humblest of punctuation marks,” he began. “Recently, however, it’s started getting angry.” Crair noticed that in his text conversations, the period has stopped serving any grammatical purpose. Instead, it is mostly being used to express a certain tone or emotion. And that emotion comes across as anger.”

One example:

Have you ever watched parents try to text with their children? One hilarious type of misunderstanding goes like this:

Parent: I am waiting for you in the car.

Child: r u mad?

Parent: I am not mad.

Parent: I am telling you I am waiting.

Child: what?????

The poor mom or dad doesn’t understand one of the cardinal rules of texting, which is that you don’t use periods, period. Not unless you want to come off as cold, angry or passive-aggressive.

Emailing and texting today use speaking rules of grammar and not written rules of grammar. Conversations are carried on as if you are talking directly to the person so all the old formal rules and guidelines for the written word are slowly fading away and speaking words in text are not only permissible…but expected.

Wow! I am definitely feeling old now. One thing I do know however, is that there were “periods” in my life (circumstances) in which I was more than happy to place a period at the end of it. Closures deserve a period – good or bad.

So until tomorrow and until the day a permanent period ends the notice of our passing…Live life to the fullest period and no… I am not angry. 🙂

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Starting to “dress things up” for Easter …and letting nature do the rest.