And so we begin the story...

I had to keep my promise by starting the serial of my book while we are still in February...expect a new chapter every Monday for about twenty weeks. They're nice and short so gather round your kids or younger siblings and get ready for story time. Enjoy and be blessed!

PROLOGUE | What is Zest?

This book, which you are reading in the form of a serial, is titled With Zest in Life. Now I realize that if someone doesn’t know what zest is, or if he has the wrong understanding of zest, this person could not grasp the concept of adding zest to life at all. So instead of making you flip through a dictionary for the definitions of zest, I will tell you what it means-or rather, what I mean by the phrase With Zest in Life.

If you were to ask a university professor what zest is, he or she would probably explain that once you graduate from college you will feel very independent and free. Nothing will hold you back (except your debt, might I add) and you will approach your new opportunities with zest. Everything you do will be done with excitement and it will be hard to contain your feelings of delight and enjoyment; you will push straight ahead with gusto, relishing every moment. In short, you will have a real zest for life.

Hold that thought a moment: note the professor said you will have a zest for life. That is not the same as zest in life! I will explain this in a moment, but first let’s ask the cooks at America’s Test Kitchen what they know about zest.

That’s right, you are probably sighing to yourself, zest is a food so this must be a cookbook! Well, no, this is not a cookbook and zest is not a food but it is an ingredient. The test cooks would tell you that zest is made when you run a grater over the surface of a lemon. The peel comes off in little specks, which are used to add flavor or color to foods. A recipe may call for two teaspoons lemon zest, so the cook would grate and grate till she acquired enough, stirring it in as prescribed. I agree that zesting certainly does sound like a tedious task, but it’s probably not terrible since the cook can use a special grater called a zester to speed up the process. But I think we’ll leave that for another time.

Zest is excitement and it is also grated lemon peel. Is that all? No, because in this story zest is something different all together. It is still an ingredient but instead of adding it to a dessert it is added to people’s lives.

Here is an example: when I think of zest, I sometimes imagine an office painted light blue. In that office are cubicles, a little section separated by dividers where a person can work at a desk. Looking out from a particular cube you see artwork hanging on the walls. There are plants sitting on the window-sill soaking up the sunlight. Turning around you see a computer showing pictures of the employee’s family as a screen saver. Sitting on the desk is an American flag, a set of homemade bookends, and a clock. Cartoons clipped from Sunday’s paper are tacked to the carpeted divider of the cubicle and posters, children’s artwork, a calendar and a list of favorite Bible verses have been added over time. Sitting on a file cabinet opposite the desk…

Sound like any Joe or Brenda’s office? For the most part it does-everyone has at least a small portion of zest in their lives; it makes them feel good. This zest-really the third definition of the word-is anything someone places in their daily path that helps keep them upbeat. Something that, when they experience it, a smile crawls onto their face. It can be anything you see or smell or touch or taste or hear.

Consider this: why do stores play music in the background while people shop? The obvious answer: it puts the crowds in a better mood by making them subconsciously forget their troubles and think happier thoughts. And a happy person will always buy more than a depressed person. So it is with Zest…little patches of brightness, uniqueness, or difference in an ordinarily dismal day-to-day living.

Keep in mind though that joy comes from Yahweh, our Father God, and without Him we can never be truly happy. Zest may help to cheer us up, but it can not do anything by itself to keep the days bright and the weeks pleasurable. For that we must turn to Yeshua (God’s son Jesus), asking Him to come inside us, to forgive our sins, and to bring us the peace that surpasses understanding. He will make us truly happy.

You may be confused as you start reading by thinking that the zest is the various animals Bradley and James took into their homes. But it’s not. You see while the story is strange and something that will never become real life-remaining as it should a make believe tale-it is a whimsical representation of zest at its best. The zest is the gardens, the poetry and the friendships; and more importantly the Biblical principle of living our lives with hope and a purpose. This is a story for children, their elders, and everyone in between and it is my desire that it will inspire you to keep pressing on towards eternal life in heaven, all the while enjoying the journey. Take time to sniff the thyme as you proceed with Zest in Life.

Chapter 1 | Little White Bear

Bradley Hutton was talking to his friend James Overland one evening in the courtyard of their apartment complex. They lived in the small town of Marang, which is a made up town in Vermont. “You know,” he said “I have a really great idea. Tomorrow, I am going to go into the woods to see if I can catch a bear. Then I will bring him home to live with us. I already told Margarita about it, and she wants to come along!”

Margarita was Bradley’s wife. She was a fun loving person, but didn’t like any nonsense and goofing around. So it was quite a surprise that she wanted to join him.

The next day, which was a sunny Tuesday in June, Bradley and Margarita started out. James, whom Bradley had been talking to the night before, decided he also wanted to come along and see what was going to happen. He wondered what Bradley was going to do in order to get that bear he wanted.

“Isn’t it illegal to just take a bear out of the woods and not pay or anything?” questioned James.

“Nope. Everything has been finalized with the state,” replied Bradley.

“How in the world are you going to make a bear live in your house with you?” James persisted.

“We shall see about that when the time comes.”

After awhile, the expedition party saw a momma bear and her cub hobbling through the thicket. They were both thin and the momma was dragging her leg. It was obivous she was hurt and in need of medical assistance.

The cub struggled over to a tree and the momma fell down next to it to rest. She looked at Bradley as if to say, “Please take my cub; I can’t take care of him any longer.”

The cub, catching on to his mother’s mood, slowly walked over to where Bradley and James were standing.

“You know,” said James, thinking out loud, “I think that we should take the mother to the animal hospital. She could sure use some help. I wonder what has happened.”

So they carefully loaded her into the back of Bradley’s pickup truck and slowly drove away from the woods toward town.

* * * * * *

A week later, things were a bit out of the ordinary around the city of Marang. Everyone knew about the recent adoption of bears into the Hutton family. Bradley and Margarita had taken the cub home and named him Little White Bear or just LWB for short.

And you ask about the momma? Well, she has a whole different life now. She is recovering from her leg surgery and is living in the lobby of the apartment. (Temporarily, of course!)