Author: Sharon Arpana Edwards

The Year of the Forgotten Dream

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

As long as the Lord lends me life, I will remember 2022 as the year of the forgotten dream. This dream was to write poetry, though I little dreamt I’d write a whole book of it!

As a lifelong lover of English literature, I’d have been content to compose a few good poems. One Christian “Kubla Khan” and some sonnets like “Chapman’s Homer” and “On His Blindness” and “Death, Be Not Proud” and “Sonnet 33” would have sufficed.

My standards were high, but my dreams weren’t big enough. Certainly not as Continue reading →

Beholding and Holding God’s Promises

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

When the proof copy of my new book arrived last week, one of the first people I texted was Rabi Maharaj, author of one of my all-time favorite books, Death of a Guru. His response to the cover image I’d sent was heartwarming.

Apart from warming my heart, Rabi’s text reminded me of the process of obtaining God’s promises. And it is a process. The Bible makes it clear that God’s promises Continue reading →

Some Cloudy Day

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

A few minutes after noon today, I picked up my phone to see a message from a friend that began, “The sad day has finally come. Queen Elizabeth II has died.”

As I was coming to terms with the news, I remembered that one of my first thoughts this morning was of England. Some hours before the queen took her final breath, all the way across the pond I was thinking of the land over which she had reigned so long and so well. Continue reading →

Remember to Recall

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

That’s probably not the best pun ever, but wordplay must be put on the back burner today. I have bigger fish to fry (on the front burner).

Today is the day when California decides whether good looks and pretty teeth are enough, or whether enough is enough. It is a truth universally acknowledged that good looks and pretty teeth go a long way in the Golden State, but I hope my fellow Californians will remember how they were treated in 2020. May they recall, and then recall. (Pardon the pun, but I’m remembering Othello’s most chilling line: “Put out the light, and then put out the light.”)

I realize the outcome does not depend solely on how the average Californian votes. The governor is backed by the state’s powerful unions and special interest groups, not to mention his friends and relatives in high places. And as I sadly discovered in June 2018, there is such a thing as voter fraud. Still, I believe in doing my part.

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A 9/11 Memory

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

When an event as cataclysmic as 9/11 occurs, you never forget where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was having my devotions in a sunlit spot in the Redondo Beach condo where I was renting a room. Unfortunately I cannot recall which passage I was reading, but I can still see the beige-covered NIV Study Bible lying open on my lap, and feel the sunshine streaming upon my shoulders through the window behind me. And I can still hear the silence in the moments before I found out that the world had changed forever.

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A Father Story

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

When I got home from church today, I found my package among a pile of Amazon deliveries lying haphazardly near the mailbox. It seems as though everyone in my building had received a package today. Perhaps some were last-minute Father’s Day gifts.

My package contained a jar of silver polish and two bottles of my favorite dish soap. I hadn’t run out, but for some reason I’d added them to the cart while ordering the polish. I love worshipping the Lord while doing dishes so don’t like running out of dish soap, especially since the Target and Ralphs near me stopped stocking this brand during the lockdown. I don’t know why. It’s not like it’s toilet paper.

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