In October of 2022 Doubleday for Young Readers [a Division of Penguin Random House] Published My Debut Picture Book The Donkey’s Song.

Everything about The Donkey’s Song is a miracle. One of the greatest miracles is that when Donkey was published, I was 72. But I had been carrying that story with me all my life, and I wrote the picture book manuscript at least 15 years before I submitted it for publication.

The Donkey’s Song is a picture book about how the Donkey who carried Mary to Bethlehem perceived the events that have become part of the nativity story–the story about the birth of Jesus. 

But my version of the nativity story has formed over the many years of my life. It began when I was a child in a little church and about how I, a little country donkey, felt about the Nativity Plays that we kids performed in our little church each Christmas.

I have told this story before, and I have advised potential picture book writers to consider their memories as springboards for future writing projects. Our memories are stored in internal banks, and when I write, I withdraw from my internal bank. I write in a stream of consciousness, and I don’t plan what I write [not even what I write on my blog and what I say in my Youtube vlog]; I simply start writing or talking, and my intuition takes over my project. Without my internal bank of memories and other sensations, my intuition would not be able to function:

Should Picture Book Writers Write Memoir? YES!

Today, I want to add another dimension to this saga:

Very clearly, The Donkey’s Song is a recounting of The Christmas Story that is told in two books of the Bible’s New Testament. The Donkey’s Song was published at the time that I was preparing to celebrate the Season of Advent in my own home. Because I am truly thankful that The Donkey’s Song was published, I vowed that each year afterward, I would publicly celebrate Advent on Social Media.

Advent Calendar 2024

I seek to explain Advent by saying that it is a season before Christmas and a time during which Christians prepare for the miracle of Christ.

Advent begins in 5 days, and in several posts, I have found myself preparing for Advent. In other words, I am preparing to prepare for the miracle of Christ.

I have tried to explain that Advent is a Season of Light and I have suggested that participants get some candles ready for their celebrations:

How to Prepare to Celebrate Advent – The Season of Light – #Advent — A Free Advent Calendar

I have explained that since I am an avid gardener, my gardens will be part of my celebration of Advent–more specifically–how I celebrate God’s creation of the world–His personal garden.

Hope Garden – Planted for Advent – Red Winter Berries & Yuletide Camellias – 4 Seasons Garden – Perennials & Roses

Today, I began reading the Gospel of Luke. Luke is one of the New Testament books that contains the story of the birth of Christ. As I was reading, I began thinking about the many years that God prepared for the birth of Jesus. Unlike me, God does not fly by the seat of His pants. For centuries, God planned for the birth of Jesus.

God Paved the Way for the Birth of Jesus – Before Zaccheus Needed a Tree to See Jesus, God Planted the Seed

At the end of the above post, I refer to Zaccheus. In the story of Zaccheus, the “wee little man,” who was not tall enough to catch sight of Jesus who was working his way through a crowd nearby, Lo and behold, a tree was where Zaccheus was standing, and in order to see the arrival of the Lord, Zaccheus climbed into that tree, where he gained the ability to peer over the heads of the masses of people around him. The story of Zaccheus continues, but today I want to concentrate upon the extent of God’s preparation [this time  His preparation — for Zaccheus]:

Years before Zaccheus would need a tree,
God planted its seed

After I wrote the post above, I returned to my garden, where I had been preparing the soil to create another raised garden bed, and the thought occurred to me: That’s how my writing from my memories works. Years before I dream of writing a picture book, the seed for that book has been planted in my mind, It is stored in my memory bank–ready for my intuition to harvest it at just the right time.

In the same way that you cannot create an old friend overnight, you cannot create a memory bank on the fly.