Write Now!
This blog started as a 'Lenten Writing Project', where we wrote each day in Lent. Now that Summer is here, let's keep up the discipline of writing with a weekly writing challenge! A prompt will be posted each week and anyone is welcome to join in and post their writing here or participate just by reading it.
Every writer has their own special light to add to this blog and all of your writing offerings are appreciated, whether poetry, prose, essay, thoughts, lists or comments and encouragement.
Recently returned from a trip to Baja Mexico with Bruce Mate, Marine Mammal Institute. We were blessed by loving contact with Gray Whales and their calves. I was able to pet and kiss these gentle giants from a skiff. We are so renewed and inspired by God's creation.
ReplyDeleteEarth welcomes the sun;
ReplyDeleteMy spirit lifts and praises rise as
Buds and seeds burst forth.
by Pat Mason
ReplyDeleteI planned to, and am actually doing a re-dedication of my New Years Resolutions:
The Top Ten
1) Pray everyday. Not just a quick 'Thanks God for the parking spot', but a meaningful, heart-to-heart with God. Everyday.
2) Read the Bible everyday. My grandparents used to read a chapter of the Bible everyday. I think it's a good habit.
3) Exercise regularly, and by that I mean REGULARLY! Go to the gym even if I have to go in the morning. Ugh.
4) Make menus, shop accordingly, plan ahead. I waste a lot of time and money just getting through the week with the groceries. A little planning would really help.
5) Clean the house more often, not just when people are coming over. De-clutter, organize and put things away.
6) Do something for others more often, starting with family first. I'm not talking about 'doing things' for people that they should be doing for themselves, sometimes it's just a word of encouragement or remembering a special day or not criticizing so much. Then reach out more to others in the community.
7) Keep a positive outlook. It's way too easy to join the ranks of the complainers and Negative-Nellie's in the world. It just brings everyone down and it’s not how I really feel anyway.
8) Go out and explore! Go to the places I want to go to, even just for the day or a few hours. It's always fun and it's okay to have fun once in awhile.
9) Take good care of the animals. They need it and deserve it.
10) Learn how to use this computer more for organizing, writing and keeping interested in new things. There's so much to learn!
I pledged to observe Lent this year in a way I had not done before. This Lenten Blog came up at just the right time. I have chosen to write on it daily during Lent. So far, so good.
Last fall I thought the first six months of this year would be very stressful at my accounting job so I joined a gym. I was right about the stress. I am surprised how quickly the gym has become a routine and it has been more renewing than I had hoped.
ReplyDeleteI also write for renewal. When I write a piece that I think really touches life and is 'complete' I experience a kind of life that I don't experience from anything else. So I write!
Plain words on a page
Reaching out to the open heart
Simple words no more
Poem I read at my Women's Studies graduation ceremony at UW
ReplyDeleteSleeping Beauty Reclaims her Dreams
I fight through
serpents and thorns
to enter this room
16 roses
wilt
by the couch
a limp rag doll
flaccid arm hanging
“wake up my darling!” I whisper
lightly kissing her still-warm cheek
A creatrix breathing into her
voice begins
breath begins
strength begins
Eyes open and peer into mine
I see my own face
And know I must do it all again tomorrow
Sleeping Beauty Reclaims Her Dreams Part II
ReplyDeleteExploding Diahhrea
As a side effect from a double-ear infection
Potty training
And especially the evening bath
Are scrapped for the night.
Meanwhile,
An unscheduled haircut
In the kindergarten classroom
And a soft discussion in caring tones
About still loving daughters that make mistakes
A renewal washes over me
Like a welcome warm rain
When I see the delicate pink baby bird eyelids
Of my children that are finally sleeping.
Now I lay me down to sleep as well.
Up for Renewal
ReplyDeleteMarlene Obie
The books aren't finished, some have been renewed
so much that privileges could be up.
There are firm deadlines for some things,
eventually, has to be if I'm going to keep up
on the latest and get to the 100 things
on my hold list there to pick up.
I want to read them all, do it all
finish the set-aside and stay up
adding new stuff, not waiting.
Yet, they won't all fit,
in the plan that's drawn up;
I have to accede that
I won't always wake up.
In order to make room,
I'll have to give some up,
shake up what there is
and let the cream come up.
Renewing connections
one I want to step up to,
and follow a suggestion
a new book brings up--
ten real hand-written letters
for some dears, who are not up
with technology communication
and now I 'fess up,
I'll make continuous renewals,
for friendships lifted up
and see royal purple crocus
surprises open up.
Lenten Prompt #16 Thursday March 8, 2012
ReplyDeleteSomething very exciting has recently come into my life, and I credit the writing of these Lenten Prompts with giving me the courage to attempt to become a part of it.
After many years (46, to be exact) of soul-searching, and many (recent) pages of Lenten Prompt Response writing, I have found the place in Life, for me, that daily renews my soul! It's called Daughters of the King.
Daughters of the King is an Episcopalian Religious Order of women who dedicate themselves to prayer, service, and evangelism within the established Church. Although it is run by the Episcopalian Church, it has some Daughters who are ELCA, Anglican, and even Roman Catholic. The DOK was begun in 1885, in the United States but, unlike deaconesses, who must have a profession as well as a Vocation, a Daughter is called to only the Vocation (prayer, service, and evangelism). Both Daughters and Deaconesses become part of Communities. A better known counterpart of a Daughter might be called a nun or a (male)monk.
As a member of the Daughters of the King, I won't be "shaving my head" or wearing a veil. I will, however, be wearing a consecrated cross of the Order, and live under a Rule: of Prayer, Service, and Evangelism -- all lived out at my own home, and in suppport of my own Church.
I like the idea of becoming a Daughter, because it will give me a wholistic, loving, Christian framework from which to live out my baptismal vows; and yet enough freedom to create a new life in Christ within that framework.
Right now, I am in a period of discernment and study, in order to discover whether or not this is the right fit for me. So far, it feels more wonderful each day! If all goes well, I will be admitted in September 2012. Then I can continue on with the work of the King (spreading the Gospel) with the support and guidance of all the Daughters of the King.
s.h.