writing

Poetry in Motion

/ pastorpete51 / 8 Comments

I have been at work on my Winter/ Spring now turned Summer writing project of a book of children’s poetry. Beyond the writing part I am not too sure of what I am doing but have been blessed to have several friends jump on board to help with everything from illustrations to some graphic design advice. Hopefully “All Creatures Mostly Small” will be out by early July. If like me you feel bogged down by a writing goal, don’t give up, resort to imitation of others or settle for less than your very best. The toughest part of course is that often our very best gets knocked down, ignored or rejected along the way. But if we are called to write, then doing our best in the way we are gifted is pleasing to the author and editor of our faith. I am not sure why God has given me a fascination for tiny things. No matter where I turn it seems He is talking to me through the smallest members of His creation and so I give you my smallest for HIs highest. If you would like a sneak peak here is a little sample from the introduction. I hope it brightens your weekend. Blessings to you all. 

Hummingbirds and Eagles


Of hummingbirds and eagles
And ears and eyes and nose
Of Ibises and flower seeds
And how God’s garden grows
These pages are all filled for you
With creatures mostly small
That God made God’s to show to us
His amazing loving plan!


Hummingbirds and Eagles by Peter Caligiuri copyright 2021 all rights reserved.

Questions From a Writer’s Journal

/ pastorpete51 / 5 Comments

I find as I grow older that I still don’t know the answers to the questions that I had when I was younger but am more at peace with not knowing. But I am discovering along the way that the Holy Spirit is helping me to begin asking some of the right questions.

I thought it might be helpful for others who also for one reason or another enjoy putting words together. If you are a Christian writer then we share a struggle with questions that are unique to that calling. Why am I writing? What are my motivations and goals? Money? Notoriety? Guilt? Loneliness? If we had x-ray vision and could see into hearts we might find out that some books we enjoyed reading have been born from motivations we never imagined. This morning I was touched when I came across this passage from the Apostle Paul as he invites us to look over his shoulder and peer into his writer’s heart.

Take a moment and let his words sink in and then ask yourself as I did today; “Are my words really born out of my own tears and personal experience? Do I really care about my readers or am I simply vying for their attention? Do I have a heart of love for my readers and are my goals for their good or is it all about me?”

Those are hard questions but I am convinced that finding the answers is more than worth the time and effort. What about you? What kinds of questions are you struggling with today? May you truly have a blessed week as you seek the Lord and write as He gives you stories to tell and words to say.

My Mother the Bat and Being a Disciple

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. Matthew 13:16 KJV

Being a disciple means being a learner, and I learned from my mother that you can’t be afraid if you want to learn something new. As a science-fiction writer, she always was learning something new and doing a lot of research so that her books would be as accurate as possible. Her second published novel was about a planet whose people were blind and got around like bats using a radar like sense. This really impressed my eight-year-old imagination and got me wondering what it would be like to just listen like a bat to what was around me.

Photo by HitchHike on Pexels.com

Then one day as I was playing in the woods behind our house, I found a real live bat hanging upside down and sleeping a few off the ground on a tree trunk. Excitedly I ran home, found an empty peanut butter jar, then scooped up the bat, slid the lid over the top of the jar and raced home. I couldn’t wait to show mom! When I ran into the house letting the screen door slam behind me, Mom put down what she was doing and came in just as I flipped the jar upside down and dumped the bat on her kitchen table, shouting, “Look mom! A real bat!” Most women back in those days would have either run away screaming or they would have picked up a broom to send the poor bat into eternity. But not my mom! Because she wanted to learn more, she was just as excited as I was to watch our sleepy friend as he stretched his feet and slowly started crawling across the table. That memory got me to wondering how ready any of us are for what God has in store. The only way to be ready is to be in His word every day. Then when a bat is dumped on our table,  we’ll be excited to learn all about it instead of running away. That new thing God is bringing us is exactly what we need for the story He is writing in our life today.