Plans

Plans don't always turn out like I think they should.

We planned to be in Portland for three nights and four days this week.
We stayed one night and one very full day.

We planned meals for our Portland trip, because of our food allergies.
In haste I didn't put ice in the cooler, forgot, and the bread I made went moldy overnight in a warm parking lot.

We planned to take our niece with us to Powell's City of Books aka the Largest Bookstore in the World.
We went first thing in the morning, and through miscommunication, misdirection, and foolishness, didn't see her until we had dinner with her last night.

Our plans changed. So we made more.

I planned to be sitting in a medical office this morning.
Now I'm sitting in a wonderful little coffee shop.

I planned to write fiction for an hour.
I found free Wi-Fi, fiddled around on facebook, and now I'm writing a blog.

I planned to read my Bible this morning first.
I read a section of Run With The Horses by Eugene H. Peterson, and then Jeremiah 17 in my Bible.

At the coffee shop, I planned to sit by myself.
I found a spot at a table across from a college student.

I planned to mind my own business.
I soaked up the atmosphered, the smells, the taste of my tea, the title of my table-mate's portfolio, and snippets of joyful conversation instead.

I planned to concentrate.
Instead, I drifted.

So why? Why do my plans go awry?
Because I didn't give them to God first, and ask for His blessing?
According to some Biblical wisdom offered up at a daily calendar at the coffee shop, that would be the right answer, and I think it has some merit.

"Have you ever considered that the Lord can cause any storm in your life to blow you to the place where He intends for you to arrive?" - God's Way Day by Day by George F. Stanley - found at the coffee shop.

"We enter a world we didn't create. We grow into life already provided for us. We must be aware that we are living in the middle of a story that was begun and concluded by another. And this other is God." - Eugene H. Peterson, Run With The Horses

"If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." James 4:15

The Character of our Lives

A few days ago I attended a memorial service for a man at my church. He passed away from a particular form of cancer that affected his heart, after living years longer than his doctors expected him to live. His story could have been tragic, but it was not. Why? Because he lived life fully, loved unconditionally, laughed often at himself and at life, and because he put all his hope in Christ.

This morning at Benedictions I came across this question: "What are you going to do today?" Maybe that doesn't sound profound, but it is when you read the answer: "I'm going to change the world." And then the next question: "How are you going to do that?"

I'll let you follow the link before I quote the entire post, but just to keep this train of seemingly random events going, about twenty minutes ago I read this in Eugene H. Peterson's Run With The Horses:

"Our lives cannot be read as newspaper reports on current events; they are unabridged novels with character and plot development, each paragraph essential for mature appreciation."

So, I feel as I'm in a place right now, a place that God has set up for me, like a table prepared with love, and my cup is running over with these thoughts that seem to come down to one: living life with the fullest joy, the fullest hope, the fullest love possible because the time is now.

Beating Writer's Block Blues

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

Planning on not blogging today, I just happened across Confident Writing's post on distractions and writer's block. Writing out some ways that I deal with those moment for the comment section made me realize that I actually had some juice for a blog post of my own.

So, since I've recently just gotten through a case of writer's block blues, I thought I would share with you just how I deal with those moments. When I say writer's block blues, I mean those times when I am just too down on my writing to see straight, and writing each word seems like an uphill battle.

When that happens, I find these methods to be my best:

1. Writing poetry when I can't seem to write prose.

2. Getting a piece of junk mail type paper, and jotting down random thoughts. Basically, I'm telling myself, "see it's ok if these words are life-changing, I just am going to get a few down anyway."

3. Writing in a tiny notebook, or writing about a tiny subject - a fingernail, the petal on a flower, the grain of wood on my old table, the shape of a spoon, my cat's mustache, etc.

4. Taking a little notebook with me wherever I am, and just jotting down random words, thoughts, feelings in short phrases.

5. Drawing a treasure map, even though my drawing is atrocious, and thinking about what the treasure could be.

6. Writing a four to five sentence exercise. Trying to write the basis of a scene or conflict within four sentences, or trying to write just dialogue that somehow tells which character is speaking without any "Joe said, Sandra said" type tags.

7. Taking a short walk, or cuddling my husband, kids, dogs or cat. Basically giving myself a breath of real life to infuse my writing with something real.

8. Freewriting for a five minutes, or ten, or fifteen, or whatever works. Freewriting is just writing as fast as I can about whatever pops into my head while the keys are typing, or my pen is scribbling. I literally do not stop the motion until the timer goes off. Sometimes I actually have a subject in mind first, but many of my freewrites start with: "I can't seem to write lately" and go on for a full pity party from there. Sometimes it helps just to get that off my chest.

9. Pulling an idea from a hat, or a writing book and just running with it even it has nothing to do with my current projects.

10. Hmm. Ran out of my favorite ideas, so here's your chance to help me out. What do you do to beat the writer's block blues?

Paradise

Paradise is a meadow filled
with wildflowers in Mt. Rainier
National Park with the sun shining.

Paradise is a beach with golden
sand, kids laughing, and sunlight
glinting off the waves.

Paradise is a morning snuggle with my
head on my husband's strong shoulder,
listening to his heartbeat.

Paradise is a moment with his arms
draped around me, and my fingers
resting in the curve of his collarbone.

Paradise is anywhere that my heart belongs.


And then the cat meows, the dogs whine, and I'm up and moving on with a new day, ideas running through my head, and furry friends to pet, and a laptop waiting. Then there is that cup (gigantic mug) of Red Rose Tea with honey to drink. All part of the paradise of real life, in an old house that needs some fixing, with an awesome view of green trees reaching into a blue sky tinged with peach on the horizon. I know the water isn't far away, although the sand isn't golden and we don't have a "waterfront view". I still know it's there, and that is good. Sometimes I miss being able to see Mt. Rainier every day, and I miss the foothills, and even the cowtown type smells from the town where I grew up. However, I love my home, and I am thankful for this little bit of paradise, including the blackberry thorns and the bathroom that's torn apart and waiting for a fix. It's all part of a full, blessed life.

Where is your paradise?

Characters that never die . . .

I wake with them in my head,
stirring up trouble and pushing
all my other ideas aside so
I get up and find my laptop
left with all those open windows,
and all those word documents
lined up and ready for me.

But I open a new, blank page
and an hour later I have a live
story, one that has me on the edge.
The old characters have been given
new birth in a fresh storyline,
just a few changed place names,
and a new timeline for the action,
and they are racing
through the keyboard
to find their finish.

But I'm not sure I want them to
cross that finish line, because
these characters have lived in my
head for so long that I would miss
them if they left, and then I wonder
just how crazy that makes me as a person,
and if all writers are like that.
I do want to finish their story,
but leave it open-ended enough
so that they can live on, and
never die.


So here I am, trying to put my manic writer moments into something poetic. I'm not sure it's working this morning. However, I'm excited to have written 1,039 words on a story that has me on the edge of my seat. I'm excited to be working with old characters that are like old friends, whom I'm still getting to know.

However, it wasn't the story I was planning to write. Yesterday I came across a submission site at an agency, and they had a "what we're looking for this month" section. Science Fiction. Hmm. My mind immediately popped back to an old story of mine, one that got to novel length, but never seemed to work. I loved/still love those characters. The call for submissions didn't really fit the story I have, but with a few tweaks, with a few changes in time, circumstance, etc, it just might work.

I kept thinking about it all evening, and woke with those old characters having new adventures in my head. I had to write them down. Compelled. 1,039 words and an hour later, I'm still having a hard time thinking of anything else.

Whether I can rewrite enough of that old story in a month for submissions or not, I have to write it.

Do you ever feel that way? Compelled to write by characters that demand a life?