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Hope for Hardscrabble Times -A Hill Country Christmas FB page

I love introducing people–this old world has so many cool individuals. Today, please meet an extremely creative young person with ideas and art popping all of the time. How do I know this? She’s my grandaughter Cora Joy, known in our family for nearly seventeen years now as Cora Baby. And what a sweetheart she is!

Here’s her latest wall art, and she’s an athlete, too. At the opening volley game a couple of weeks ago, she tweaked her left knee—yep, this girl who has yearned for the beginning of the season, practiced all winter to hone her skills . . . I have been proud of her many, many times, but never more than now, when she’s come upon some hardscrabble times.

But like the heroes and heroines of the stories in our Hill Country Christmas Collection, she knows how to hang in there. To make do. To bring advantage out of disadvantage.

We can’t wait until she can play again, but going to her games still perks us up. She’s ALL THERE, regardless of adverse circumstances. Cheering her teammates on, greeting each member who comes off the floor, totally present in the moment. Reminds me of several of our characters, folks from various eras who faced war, pestilence, pandemic, and a host of other personal trials with spunk (to borrow a WWII term.)

So our family is cheering for Cora…and the authors of our Christmas Collecction are cheering right up to release day, October 1, too. May each of our tales brighten the homes of readers everywhere and provide examples of facing down obstacles with SPIRIT.

Who in your present or past knows how to look tough times in the eye and keep on movin’ ahead? Please share about one of them here!