Dear Diary
This morning after chores and a little time with Omelette in the coop, I sat curled up by the ship’s lantern light (our pretend one, made from a jelly jar with a candle stub inside), trying to read more of Catholic Crusoe. I don’t mind saying it’s a hard book. The words are so old-fashioned and proper it feels like I need a shovel just to dig through each page. Some of the sentences go on forever like stormy winds without a place to land, and I kept having to read the same part over and over again.
Sister Mary Claire must’ve noticed me sighing and flipping back a page again, because she came and sat beside me with her sewing and asked gently, “Stuck at sea again?”
I nodded and held up the book. “I know it’s good,” I said, “but I can’t hardly understand half of what’s going on. It’s like sailing in fog with no map.”
She smiled at that and said, “Then why don’t you make a map?”
I blinked at her.
“I mean,” she continued, threading her needle, “why don’t you rewrite the story? Tell it the way you’d want to hear it. You already know the heart of it—a ship, a storm, a longing for Heaven, and a faithful little band. Use your own words. Add Mini, and Father LeRoy, and even Omelette if you like.”
Well, that idea lit something inside me. Like striking a match in the dark.
I started writing this afternoon, and the words came easier than I thought they would. I made it our ship instead—the Catholic Crusoe—with Sister Mary Claire, Father LeRoy at the helm, and me, holding on to Omelette as the storm rolled in. The sky was cracking open with lightning and Mini kept her eyes on the horizon like a brave little sailor. I wrote how we spotted land—a wild green island with a sugarloaf mountain and deep valleys—and how I wanted to go ashore and see what God had hidden there for us to find.
And suddenly, Diary, the story wasn’t hard anymore. It was ours.
Dear Jesus,
Thank You for Sister Mary Claire and the way she helps me see things differently. Help me not to be afraid of hard words or big ideas. Show me how to tell Your story in my own way, and always make You the Captain of my heart. Amen.
Love,
Kathy
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