Walking On Water

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Yesterday in NYC there was a memorial service for Madeleine L’Engle. She is my writing hero. In honor of her I am going to post here a few quotes from her book, “Walking On Water”, the most incredible book I have ever read on art and writing.

From pg. 18, Walking on Water:     Obedience is an unpopular word nowadays, but the artist must be obedient to the work, whether it be a symphony, a painting, or a story for a small child. I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius, or something very small, comes to the artist and says, “Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me.” And the artist either becomes the bearer of the work, or refuses; but the obedient response is not necessarily a conscious one, and not everyone has the humble, courageous obedience of Mary.

From pg. 55 “Walking on Water”:        An aritist at work is in a condition of complete and total faith.

From pg. 60:         I have to try but that doesn’t mean I have to succeed. Following Christ has nothing to do with success as the world sees success. It has to do with love.

From pg. 67:         I am grateful that I started writing at such an early age, before I realized what a daring thing it is to do…We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are…

From pg. 70:     The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort toward wholeness.

From pg. 89:     But unless we are creators, we are not fully alive.

From pg. 105:    Despite our inability to control circumstances, we are given the gift of being free to respond to them in our own way, creatively or destructively.

From pg. 118:    If I have to believe all this limiting of God, then I cannot be a Christian.

From pg. 151: I have a point of view. You have a point of view. But God has VIEW.

From pg. 176:     The refusal to love is the only unbearable thing.

And from pg. 193:    Art is an affirmation of life, a rebuttal of death.

We miss you, Madeleine.

Reflections

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This morning when I looked out at the lake the sky was reflected so perfectly in the water that I could even see the shadows in the clouds.

The lake looked exactly like the sky-exactly.

For this to happen the water has to be especially calm and peaceful…

the way we need to be to reflect the glory of God. 

A Way of Seeing

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While I was in Chicago my Mom and I visited the Chicago Institute of art. There is just nothing like seeing paintings in person. There is a life and spirit there that isn’t in a print or photo of the painting. What is it?

I heard a mom say once that the difference between the two peanut butter sandwiches on her table was that one of them was made while she was watching the end of a TV show, and the other one was made while she was thinking about and praying for her child.

Simply put, it was made with love.

She swore that the sandwiches would actually taste different, and she offered the one “made with love” to her toddler and ate the other one herself.

And you know what? I believe her. There are intangibles all around us because we live in a world that contains far more than what we can touch and see.

I believe that the paintings that were actually touched by the artist, messed over, perhaps cried over or even prayed over, contain at least some small part of that artist’s soul.

I can feel it when I walk into the room and it stays with me when I go home. 

Writing with Purpose

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I left this comment on a fellow writer’s blog:

I can now say that I have been writing professionally for about 17 years. In spite of the fact that I have had seven books published, numerous articles, have been paid for my writing, and have even won a couple of small awards, it hasn’t, for me, turned out to be a way to make a living. But I have been able to be a part of thousands of peoples lives, millions if you count my Guideposts article. That is what writing is really about…connecting to more people than you ever could by speaking or going to a day to day job. And maybe, sometimes, making a difference by making them think, or laugh, cry, or pray, or…for one moment not feel so alone. I have to have a “real” job to help pay the bills, but I have to have the real job of writing to have purpose.

Buster the Pug

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We surprised my daughter with a pug puppy today.

She was at lunch with a neighbor and I called her and asked if we could drop by her house and wait inside till she got home. We took the puggy in and all his puppy supplies and let him play while we waited for her to get home. 

The puppy was pretty shy with my husband and me but the minute he saw my daughter he knew right away that he belonged to her. It was amazing.

She said, “Your name is Buster.” And when she said his name he sat up and pawed at the air.

The puppy is a beautiful, little rescue that I am certain was meant to be a part of our family.

Making Tired Work

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Okay, so yesterday I got up at dark-thirty to make a very early flight. I arrived at my brother’s house and spent the day playing with two delightful toddlers and guess what…I’m really tired this morning. So I’m asking myself today; How do I make tired work for me? Since I usually have a hard time being still and this morning that isn’t a problem, I have decided to “be still” (see previous blog), read, blog, rest, imagine, pray and visit with my soon to arrive Mom. ‘Cause, tonight the delightful toddlers will be back and they will want to play…and so will I.

Letting Go

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In relationships, as in most other things in this world, the only thing we can control is ourselves. We can love someone, full out, no holds barred, be careful to give them space and room to grow, know them so well that we can anticipate, then do our best to meet their needs,

but how our loved ones respond to our love is completely up to them.

I think it is that way with God too. He loves us full out, no holds barred. He knows us and our needs better than we know ourselves. He gives us space and room to grow. 

And… He gives us the choice to love Him, wave at Him, or simply walk away.

Love is a choice.

and sometimes, to really love, we have to let go.

Fall Mountain Ride

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We went for a ride today. The fall colors are at their peak…so we went to peek. It was amazing! There were bright yellow and red trees decorating the green hillsides like lights on a Christmas tree. I told my husband that the mountains looked like giant sleeping bears. I wanted to reach out and stroke their fuzzy, patchwork fur. As usual he looked at me like I was from another planet, then smiled.

Surprises

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Most evenings when the sun is getting ready to climb into bed I get into my little yellow Ripper kayak and paddle out to a place where I can watch the sunset. The water is usually quiet then, the breeze often soft. To get to my spot I have to head straight into the eye-squinting sunlight, straight down a golden water-path of light. Then I turn behind a point of trees and set my paddle on my lap, ready for the show. Every evening is different. Weathermen can predict what they think will happen weatherwise each day. They are right sometimes. But no one can tell you what the sunset will look like. Will it be golden, or cadmium orange or just a soft yellow line across the horizon? Will the color echo onto the clouds and trees or will it adorn the sunball like a halo? I never know till it happens…and I love surprises…

Be Still

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Even on my days off I find myself making a mental list of everything I want to get done…everything I should get done.

I think on the top of that list should be the words:

1. Be still

Not for a minute, or a second, but for long enough to get past just catching my breath before the next marathon; long enough to get over that painful side-stitch.

Even fun activities are activities.

I need to learn how to BE STILL.

Being Childlike

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“You walk into a restaurant. Your job is to figure out how old the restaurant is but you are not allowed to ask any questions. What can you do?”

I ask this question when I am taking groups through the Creative Problem Solving process. I get all kinds of answers, things like; look at the décor, check out the architecture, or find the date stamped on the toilet.

One day when my daughter and her best friend were about nine years old, the three of us went out to lunch. We were sitting at a booth waiting for the server to come when Paige leaned way under the table. At first I thought she dropped something, but when she didn’t sit back up after several minutes I asked her,

“Paige, what are you doing under there?”

She answered, “I’m trying to see how much gum is stuck under this table.”

The mom in me shuddered, “You’re not touching it are you?”

“Nah, I’m counting it.”

“What in the world for?” Of course, my daughter, Lydia, was giggling through this whole conversation.

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I can see clearly now

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On many days a haze covers the mountains in the distance. They become all gray and shrouded and it is hard to see how beautiful they are. In fact, sometimes the air is so thick I can’t see them at all. But after a thunder storm the air clears and I can see the bright colors of their foliage blending into a rich purple-blue. The nooks and crannies of hide-away rocks become visible and the sheer majesty of the God-sculptures almost take my breath away.

After the storm……..

Birthing books

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I just blogged three metaphors to describe the lake I live on. But I liked them, so I cut and copied them to my writing file. I want to save them for my next middle grade novel.

Did I say “next novel”?

In the midst of writing Silent Glades I was like a woman in labor. The waiting, work and pain was so tremendous that I said; No, I screamed, “I will never do this again!” But once it was finished, like a young mother holding her new baby, I started thinking about how much she’d like a little sister.