“To be captive to ones impulses results in meaninglessness and despair, but live spontaneously out of the spirit means real life through the unity of your being”
Romans 8:6
“To be captive to ones impulses results in meaninglessness and despair, but live spontaneously out of the spirit means real life through the unity of your being”
Romans 8:6
Last night in Dallas, most questions during the Q and A about writing. I said all the same old things—butt in chair, bird by bird, shitty first drafts, find a writing friend who will read and respond to your stuff; you own everything that has happened to you; read a lot more great poetry; carry a pen at all times, or God will give me all the great lines and images that you were supposed to be yours, because I always have a pen.
But what people secretly want help with is how to get published, not how to become better writers. Only the creativity will fill you. Only the discipline will lead you to freedom. The publishing will make you crazier and more stressed than you already are. But finding the work that is inside you, and bringing it forth onto the page, and learning to walk with it as you discover each other, and making it as good and true as you possibly can, is where the fulfillment will be. I wish there were another way.
It’s hard, and it goes badly as often as it goes well, but no one is making you do it. No one cares if you write—so you have to. Just do it. And I would add, Go get ‘em.
Anne Lamott
it’s time to get out of the desert and into the sun.
even if it’s alone.
on your porch, the format
you never know dear,
how much you breathe
strength and courage into me.
aaron sprinkle
“Seeing this big city, I promised myself that one day I would conquer New York … with my passion for the arts and mountains of creative energy stored inside myself.”
Yayoi Kusama
Look past your thoughts so that you may drink the pure nectar of this moment.
Rumi
“Here is this thing I wrote for bookish.com:
I am a staunch Democrat and a devout, if terrible, Christian. What this means is that I am socially and fiscally liberal, an old style bleeding heart liberal, who loves Jesus and tries to be His faithful servant, supports gun control, abortion rights and tries to love everyone as a brother or sister.
Some days go better than others. Like many people, I am equal proportions of narcissism and low self-esteem, so every now and then, on festive occasions, I get wrapped up in my own petty distractions, obsessions and needs. But as much as possible, I try to help take care of the poor, the aged, the hungry and scared. I get to keep starting over.
That’s what being a Christian means to me. There is, in truth, very little snake-handling involved. Still, it can be quite embarrassing: When non-specific spiritual people—let’s call them the Nons—hear the word “Christian,” they think of public Christians. Upon hearing that you are a Believer, they instantly think of stages full of Christians on TV, waving their arms like palm fronds in a hurricane. Now, I mean no offense if you frequently appear on the stages of televangelists, fronding for the Lord. I know that is not a real word, but it should be.
When Nons hear the word “Christian,” they do not instantly think Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, Abraham Lincoln or other profound and visionary heroes. They think Jerry Falwell, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, people who seem close to hysteria in their convictions. They think Jim Bakker and Ted Nugent, who asked his audience, in an editorial, whether the country would have been better off if the South had won the Civil War.
I don’t want to get distracted right now by complex political controversy, but, uh: no.
Nons hear about Christians, and they see us cringing before the image of hell’s flames. Yikes. If I believed in those literal flames, it would be such a stretch for me, as I am extremely sensitive and worried, with a low pain threshold. They think we fear the devil as represented by Al Pacino or Trey Parker, not as the dark energy of addiction that has destroyed our own lives, and the lives of our most beloved; the painful and deeply human craving for power and domination, both in families and in national positions, although I am not going to name names.
But what I believe, and what my moderately left—and right—wing Christian brothers and sisters believe, is that Jesus preached a gospel of radical sacrifice, of giving away everything we possibly can—our time, our money, our prayers—to the have-nots, the same old/same old suffering people of this world, widows and whole nations.
Let us go in peace then, to be people of goodness and service and sacrifice. I keep trying to do better, like most people do, but I don’t have a magic wand. I am learning as I go; and boy, am I humbled by my failings. And “humbled” is always a great place to start anything, from being a better parent, writer, mate; or still, after all these years, trying to save the world.”
-Anne Lamott
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your Faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.”
Kahlil Gibran
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus, Matthew 28