#WednesdayWordswithFriends Welcomes Sharon J. Mondragón (@SJ_Mondragón)!

Good Morning from Sam Rayburn Lake!

It's another rainy morning here. Monday was beautiful and we got some fishing in but yesterday and today is too windy and wet. But just getting away from the house is wonderful and restful after last week's craziness LOL! I brought Nora Roberts' Inn Boonsboro trilogy and have read 2 so far. The 3rd is scheduled for today. Reading these books reminds me of my visit to Boonsboro, MD which I shared here. 

'Nuf about me though, today's guest is brand new to our blog, brought to us by Audra Jennings PR so please give Sharon Mondragon a warm, W-E-L-C-O-M-E!

The Secrets of the Wrinkles

A few years ago, my granddaughter was having a conversation with an adult cousin about old people. The cousin commented that old people can be set in their ways, to which Marleigh replied, “They also hide secrets in their wrinkles.”

My first response to this was the awe and pride of a writerly grandma at the sheer poetry of Marleigh’s observation. Poetry lends itself to reflection and contemplation, teasing out the many and ever-deeper meanings of a particularly compelling line. As I’ve thought about this line over the last several years, it has become, for me, a call to action.

I’ve paid attention to the wrinkles in people’s faces since I was a young woman shopping in military commissaries. I was particularly interested in the faces of the retiree wives I encountered there. I could see how they had spent their lives by their wrinkles. I could tell, from the way deep lines had settled around their mouths, that some had spent their entire adult lives angry and displeased. Others had spent most of their lives smiling and laughing, if the lines at the corners of their eyes were any indication. Sometimes I would stop one of those women and tell her, “I hope I look like you when I’m old.” Those faces in which the lines had fallen in pleasant places reminded me to smile and laugh often, so I would look like them someday.

As I’ve aged, however, I’ve come to understand that there is more to this wrinkle thing than I thought. My life is now rich with experience: victories and defeats, joys and sorrows, confusion and aha moments, the perspective that only years of living can give. These lines in my face have stories to tell and wisdom to impart.  In our youth-oriented culture, “the wrinkle crowd” tends to be dismissed. Many of us can’t even text, much less tweet, so what in the world do we have to offer (besides babysitting the grandkids)?

And so, we hide all that we have learned about living in the wrinkles in our faces, from generations sorely in need of all we have concealed there. Some of us even try to hide the wrinkles with miracle creams and Botox injections, trying to appear as clueless and carefree as those who are younger. 

They may be clueless, but they are far from carefree. Young people these days are battling more anxiety than I ever remember feeling in my twenties. They don’t have the perspective of having lived through any number of difficulties and come out the other side, maybe battered, maybe bruised, but with a better idea of their strengths and weaknesses, of their mettle and their courage. This is where the wrinkle crowd comes in. We’ve already been through many of the things that worry them. We’re living proof that setbacks are not the end of the world and can even be the beginning of something new and wonderful that we might never have dreamed of otherwise.

We can come alongside, not to deliver the “when I was your age” lectures we gave our teenagers, but as a steady, praying, and reassuring presence that communicates, “Yes, this is hard. You’re not alone. I’m here. Let’s pray and see what God will do.”

When I was the middle-aged mother of a couple of troubled teens, the denizens of the early service at my church listened patiently to my tale of woe. They never turned a hair, no matter how wild the tale of my sons’ misbehavior. I could rest in their wrinkles long enough to think clearly. Steeped in their love and steadiness, I gathered the courage and wisdom I needed to address the situation, day after day, week after week.

We the Wrinkle Crowd have blazed the trail and our wrinkles are living proof that we’ve endured the scorching sun of adversity on the way. Let us not forget those who trudge behind us, but look back to see them, cheer them on, pray them over the rough terrain. Our wrinkles are a treasure map and it’s time we shared the secrets of how to find the riches of courage, patience, and faith.

Sharon J. Mondragón writes about the place where kindness and courage meet. Her debut novel, The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady (originally titled The Heavenly Hugs Prayer Shawl Ministry) was the 2017 winner of the American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis award in the Short Novel Category, and she has also been recognized by The Saturday Evening Post where her short story, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” was an Honorable Mention Awardee in the 2014 their Great American Fiction Contest.

Mondragón has been active in prayer shawl ministry since 2008 and currently serves as facilitator for the prayer shawl ministry at her church, St. Paul Episcopal in Waxahachie, TX. She also knits with the Circle of Healing at Red Oak United Methodist Church. She is a Level 2 Certified Knitting Instructor through the Craft Yarn Council and teaches beginning knitting at a local yarn store.

Mondragón is the mother of five grown children and has four grandchildren. After 26 years as an Army wife, she has settled in Midlothian, TX with her hero/husband, her laptop, and her yarn stash.

Visit Sharon Mondragón’s website and blog at www.sharonjmondragon.com and follow her on Facebook (Sherry Mondragón) and Twitter (@SJ_Mondragón).

Her debut novel, The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady is available at Amazon, ChristianBook.com and other places where great Christian fiction is sold.