The Weaver

 

My life is but a weaving, between my God and me,

I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily,

Oftentimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride,

Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.

Not till the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly,

Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful in the skillful Weaver’s hand,

As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

B.M. Franklin (1882-1965)

Found in Corrie ten Boom’s Tramp for the Lord.

Writers’ Wednesday: Birth

This seems a fitting piece of verse for today, dedicated to writers everywhere.

Writers’ Wednesday

Madeleine L’Engle on Writing

One of my long-time favorite authors–going back four decades now!–and writing mentor (via her written words) always has such sage advice for writers. In fact an article titled “Words of Wisdom” in the June 2002 edition of The Writer was information collected and reprinted from the book I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog–Madeleine L’Engle: Herself–Reflections on a Writing Life (published the previous year). Here is a small excerpt of her advice to writers taken from that article. I think it is timeless and spot on. Not that I always follow it, but it’s great to aim for!

Three Recommendations

Read at least an hour a day. I try to read something I feel I ought to read for most of the time and then for a little bit of the time I read something just for sheer fun. [I do just the opposite these days, although for a long time it was the reverse.] Fun reading is important, and I think we underestimate reading for fun…

Part of your technique of writing is built by writing, and with this you should also have fun. I do think that keeping an honest, unpublishable journal is helpful. Include what you are thinking, what you are feeling, what you are responding to. Include what you are angry about that you heard on the news. Don’t talk about the news in terms of politics but in terms of your own life. What does this mean to you?

Write every day.

 

 

Writers’ Wednesday

Are you a writer? If you journal, blog, write poems, lyrics, short stories, fan fiction, columns in your weekly parish bulletin, organization newsletter, or maybe even in your area magazine–if you do any of these things then you are a writer. You don’t have to have published novels, short stories, non-fiction books and magazine or periodical pieces (although if you have, you can mentor the rest of us.) Having said that, I want to encourage my fellow writers–and you know who you are!–to do whatever it takes to write more and see where it takes them. Maybe you’ll be motivated to start a blog. Or perhaps you’ll keep a private notebook of your creative outpouring. Writing, for some of us, is like a love-hate relationship. We love it when we’re writing. We hate it when we have writer’s block. Wherever you find yourself today, or sometime this week, do one small thing to nudge along your writing practice.

Here’s my example. I had another post written yesterday to put up today but then my computer ate it so instead of breaking into sobs and giving up (after all, it was close to bedtime and I do my best writing in the mornings) I just started over with something completely different and this is what came out. Hopefully someone finds it takes them to the next level in using their creativity. After all, if you’re not using it you could be depriving the world of something it needs and very well will make a difference in someone else’s life. I get that we’re all busy and sometimes feel too tired or uninspired to write. Just don’t let life pass you by without sharing your gift with the rest of us because we need to hear from you.

Monday Musing

As this is the first day of the first week in Ordinary Time, I wanted to celebrate with something that reflects some Splendor of the Ordinary (HT to Thomas Howard’s book by the same title). So I’m sharing a favorite poem that reflects my sentiments on this matter on this dreary, damp and cold day–which cheers me up, as any good Irish poet will.

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

William B. Yeats

P.S. And yes, I do love “The Quiet Man” with its wee humble cottage!

Into the Darkest Hour

It was a time like this,
War & tumult of war,
a horror in the air.
Hungry yawned the abyss—
and yet there came the star
and the child most wonderfully there.

It was time like this
of fear & lust for power,
license & greed and blight—
and yet the Prince of bliss
came into the darkest hour
in quiet & silent light.

And in a time like this
how celebrate his birth
when all things fall apart?
Ah! Wonderful it is
with no room on the earth
the stable is our heart.

Madeleine L’Engle

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