Peggy Chambers "Views from the Hammock" site

  Most families have a pet – some have many.  The most popular is always a dog and we are no different.  We have a dog.  A little medium-sized beagle mix named Athena – named for the goddess of war.  She really doesn’t resemble her name.  She is gentle and sweet unless we have company or she sees another dog not on a leash when we are on a walk.  And then she goes nuts!

We found the little light of our lives on Craigslist at the age of six months from a soldier being deployed.  He had found her and her litter in a ditch dumped by some scum of the earth and left to die.  Dogs are better than some humans – they would never do such a thing. We should thank them for being our friends.

Like I said, she is a mutt but she is an intelligent mutt.  She looks a lot like a beagle but her legs are long and her ears are short.  She leaps across the back yard like a gazelle and has a toad friend in her back yard that we have named Bob.  She never tries to hurt him, she just noses him “hello” when he appears after dark and then they go their separate ways.

She loves to ride in the car or better still my husband’s truck.  She is a city dog, not a big tough farm dog or junk yard dog.  When my grandson comes to spend the weekend we blow up a mattress in the living room and let them sleep together.  Whether either one do much sleeping is still up for discussion.

Lately my daughter has acquired a new puppy of the mutt variety.  He has a big future ahead of of him.  Toby is being trained to be a therapy dog so she can use him to sooth clients in her practice.  I think most dogs are therapy dogs.  They know our hearts and are always there to lick your tears away.  Right now he is a very large ten-week old puppy that already weighs 22 pounds.  We’re not sure what breed he is – all of them I think, but he is adorable.  He is already in puppy school and I am sure he is the star pupil.  

I’ll bet you have pets.  Tell me about them and send pictures.  I love animals, especially dogs.  Do you have a new one and how has it improved your life?

  Back to the working world once again, like most writers, I’m finding less and less time to write.  I work on my novel early mornings and late at night.  But, what other things in life consume your waking moments like making up stories and hoping to share them with total strangers?  My stories, whether they are short stories, children’s books, or novels are a labor of love and I’m sure yours are too.

They say that writers are solitary type people.  They live in a world of their own making by themselves and often lonely.  I wonder if that is really true.  The Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc.’s (http://www.owfi.org/) annual convention is just two weeks away.  It encompasses four states and over 400 writers convening to pitch their wares to other writers, publishers, editors and agents.  They also come for the camaraderie with other people like them – with stories to tell.

  This convention is the highlight of my year.  I’ve made great friends and come away feeling like I could really succeed at writing – not just dream about it.  I could get published! And I did.

If you have never participated in the OWFI conference, you should try it.  Three days of all kinds of writers under one roof, this year in Norman at the Embassy Suites Hotel.  Two banquets, countless writing sessions, contests, reading rooms, poetry slams and more fun than a barrel of monkeys (really, monkeys?) as only writers can do it.  The only thing missing is a dance!  

If you’re going to be there, look me up.  I’ll be the one that looks like a writer, whatever that looks like. We would love for you to join us.

I was moved to write this after the Sandy Hook massacre and did not put it on my website but shared it on Facebook.  After the week this nation has endured I have decided to share it again.  Even though the events of this week were not a gunman in an elementary school, a tragedy is a tragedy and my feelings are much the same.

   I know when they handed out maternal instinct I got in line more than once.  You can ask my kids – who are now adults – I try to mother the whole world.  Once a pacifist, I had children of my own and the tigress came out.

But, after the massacre in Connecticut this week, I can’t quit weeping. They weren’t my children – I don’t know anyone in Connecticut, but I cannot stop the tremendous tearing of my heart.  Every time the news comes on, I find the tissues.

I weep for the children that died, I weep for the families who are left with no one to tuck into bed at night, and I weep for the family of the shooter.  For they too are hurting.  Do they wonder what they could have done differently to help the tortured mind that pulled the trigger? Probably nothing.   But there must be answers to stop the tremendous pain that causes someone to want to inflict even more pain on someone else.

What can we as a society do to prevent the infliction of this kind of tragedy on helpless victims?   Six to seven-year old children are easy targets and should be protected at all costs.  Would I have stopped him if I could have?  Without a doubt.  One adult life for twenty children is an easy answer to a difficult question.  Maybe until we can find a better one.

We have to end the violence.  But, mostly we have to protect the innocent. Tissues aren’t really going to fix the problem.