Old Things R New

A Slice of Life

DiVoran Lites

When I was ten years old and lived in Colorado with my family, my mother sent me to the cellar to get a jar of canned pears. As I started back up the steps, I saw a slimy-looking creature as big as my hand lying on a step. Startled, I flew from the cellar screaming. From that day on, I was afraid of any salamander or lizard. 

Now I’m all grown up, but I’m still watchful for any reptile, including lizards. Yes, lizards are designated reptiles. We always see several when we look out the window or walk around the yard. Unless it’s cool enough to eat supper on the porch, we sit at a table in front of a large window inside to have our meals. Lately, we have had a visitor every meal. We have named him Lizzy. He jumps onto the windowsill from the top of a small fence. When he gets to the closed window, he puts his tiny claws on the windowsill and looks in. He seems to want to come in. If we play music, he bobs his head. He’s a plain brown/black lizard, the size of my palm, with a dainty finger added. But wait,  no, I would never touch a lizard, not even with a glove on. 

When we moved to Florida, we were surrounded by lizards. They were everywhere. One Sunday, I saw one on the wall over the baptistry in the church. Lizards weren’t the only thing I had to deal with. We had green frogs on our back porch that splacked themselves to the sliding glass doors on the outside. I didn’t like them much, but I’m sorry that they are all gone now. Their greenness glowed, and they had a strip of real gold along their sides. Their chorus after rain was inspirational. 

Our children played with the lizards by letting them hang from ear lobes or the skin between their thumb and finger. If one came around when I was on the porch, I ran into the house to get one of the kids or their dad to take it away. If no one was home, I slid something flat under it, tipped it into a glass, and let it slide back into the yard where it belongs.   

One day I tried to move a small lizard away from where he was lying by using a spoon. He ran frantically back and forth so obviously scared to death that I had to leave him where he was. In the meantime, I had a new answer to an unasked thought. Lizards have feelings. They are afraid for their lives. I never thought of a lizard having fear. As far as I know, no animal or insect wants to die. Remember how the smallest ant or spider runs or flees-on a string-to stay alive. 

Anyhow, once you get a lizard that wants to be your friend, wants you to let him in, and likes to hear the beat of the music, you start to think about loving things that seem to love you. And you begin to comprehend that some creatures and even others we know might have good hearts and be worth loving. Maybe we all need to get on the love train and forget about picking over every problem, worry, appearance, or whatever someone else is or has, and pray about loving them instead. I hear that trail is easier the more you walk it. 

Jesus prays for us night and day, so that means He will greatly help us in this endeavor. 

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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