Names are important, because what they say and mean reveal a lot about the person who carries them. Cara Colleen means “friendly girl.” At the very least, even if I have never met you, I hope you can understand that I share what I share because I believe we can all be friends through the one Friend who is eternally with us. Sometimes it is my children who come up with the best ideas for names and titles. My second child and oldest son suggested a title for a second book only weeks after my first one was released (five years ago). He was ten then, and already a deep thinker.
There is much of my poetry that I don’t show to the kids simply because I have used it as an outlet for venting, for expressing, for putting my deepest emotions and thoughts “out there” so I can get them into perspective. It has been one of the more important avenues that the Lord has worked with me to get through the healing process. Not all of it is depressing or sad or angry. Much of it is praise and adoration for the One who has been my strong fortress through so many years of trials and desolation. Some of it is thoughtful expression, nostalgia, or just another attempt to verbalize my admiration for the wonders of creation. There are a few that I have deliberately set out to write on a given subject and wrestled with my artistic impetus before I was able to say, “there, it’s finished.” Some are to my kids, my mother, my dad, my brothers, my husbands past, former, and present, and some are to individuals who have influenced my life in one way or another.
As I feel the kids are old enough to understand, I’ll show them some of the pieces I have written because I want them to be part of what I do. I have encouraged each of them in their own creative talents. All of them are involved with music in some way (piano, violin, guitar, brass, drums). Hannah has been writing poetry for years already, involved in high school choir competitions, and will be 18 in a few weeks. Jonathan is writing a book, so he can publish it, make millions, and go to art school in Rome after he graduates high school in a couple more years. David is in the band and wants to become an engineer. Zechariah, well, even though he’s been learning piano and has the funniest one-liners, I think he is just enjoying childhood still and I am going to let him be one for a while yet.
It was Jonathan who came up with the name I have never been able to top. Since it looks as if a second book may not happen until sometime in the next century, I thought I should at least share the title. Maybe I should make it the subtitle of my webpage… who knows? At the very least, it deserves acknowledgement because it so aptly describes my relationship with my Lord, the God who created me, who knows me more intimately than I even know myself, and who is, as John Milton claimed, my Muse …because He is indeed The Healing King.