Occasionally I go to Amazon.com just to see my book offered for sale. When I checked today, I discovered a book by Carol Diament, Moonbeams: A Hadassah Rosh Hodesh Guide. My curiosity led me to click on “see inside this book” where I read about the Jewish New Moon Festival, Rosh Hodesh, which is a symbol of renewal. Not wanting to plagiarize, I am prevented from quoting more than a few lines here, but please check it out for yourself on Amazon.

God is telling us that we need to renew ourselves. With each cycle of the moon, “…we have the opportunity to take stock of our lives and revise our behavior, our commitments, our goals. We, too, have the power to start over.”

I may never again look at the tiny sliver of a crescent moon without saying a prayer and to reevaluate whether or not I am on the path that God has called me. According to Diament’s book, the Rosh Hodesh prayer is for “life and peace, joy and gladness, deliverance and consolation.” May it be so for me and for each one reading this entry.

Here I am again. Months have gone by without a word, but I am determined to try again, perhaps this time with more consistency.

The Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers’ Conference was worthwhile, as usual. This year I focused on marketing workshops in an effort to learn more tools on how to promote my novel, A Star Rises in Persia. “E Blasts” seem to be the preferred way to contact a lot of people in a short amount of time, but I’m one who hates “forwarded” email messages so I’m not entirely comfortable with it.

Speaking of forwarded emails, a few…a very few…are actually worth reading. I’ve tried to train my dear friends to be ExtrEmly SeLecTive in their choice of jokes or can’t-live-without-stories to send on to me. I, in turn, respect their precious time as well.

I subscribe to a news service that frequently has pertinent information that I would like to forward to people whom I think might be interested, but most often I pass, fearing that I might fall into the category of bored surfers with nothing else to do.

I sincerely hope that my acquaintances will not be offended by my complaints. I am AlwAys happy to receive personal notes from them with a simple “thinking of you today” message, as I often do. I love people, mostly, and thrive on communication. So write back to me, will you?