new ways

As some of you know, I've been working on a book for the past several months. A good friend of mine and I are combining our brilliance to produce a book on spiritual practices for young adults. It has been so much fun developing this book - she lets me do all the academic research! Yeah, I realize the fact that my excitement over that makes me a dork. I'm cool with that.

What I've really loved, though, is practicing the practices. We can't very well write intelligently on these things we're suggesting to others unless we do them ourselves, so each week we take on a new chapter's worth of material. I thought I was a pretty well-rounded practicing person, but there are some new things I'm adding to my spiritual repatoire.

I love drawing a text. Reading scripture and picking a verse that stands out and then writing the words while doodling (way better than taking notes in school, I promise). Really helps me stop, reflect, consider and live in each word and explore - with doodle - what that word, verse, moment means to me.

I also love considering sleep and even dreams a spiritual practice. We all know I enjoy my sleep, but I never really thought about considering sleep as a way to connect with God.

They say that when you teach something, you really learn the material. Well, I'd say the same for writing a book about something! Very enriching.

elmer gantry

Just finished a book I've been working on for a couple weeks, Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis. It's about a man who rises from less than stellar beginnings to become a well-respected minister and morality leader. Except it's not as feel good as perhaps that brief description makes it sound. I really enjoyed the book - it had some brilliant commentary on hypocrisy in the church as well as some great laugh-out-loud moments.

Particular favorite quote: “Because the Baptists and the Methodists have all the numbskulls—except those that belong to the Catholic Church and the henhouse sects—and so even you can get away with being a prophet. There are some intelligent people in the Episcopal and Congregational Churches… Of course all Presbyterians are half-wits, too, but they have a standard doctrine and they can trap you into a heresy trial.”

That’s us, half-wits with a keen eye for heresy!

If you’re interested on reading a classic piece of American lit that was quite controversial in its days and is still rather dead-on in this day, I recommend it!

okay, not quite

Well December 1 is approaching and if you look to the little image on the right on this page, you'll see I'm no where near the 50,000 word mark for my novel. And yet, I'm not at all discouraged!

I had so much fun and plan on continuing the fun - my new goal is to finish before Christmas. I'm also going to keep up the NaNoWriMo model of not editing, though I certainly am making notes about ideas I have for that process.

a long way gone

I love to read, loved it since I was a little girl. Other kids would want to watch tv or a movie, I'd want to read. Other teenagers got in trouble staying up late at night talking to their friends on the phone; I got in trouble for reading until 3am when I had school the next day.

But at this moment in time, I'm finding it very hard to read. A few friends recommended a book to me, one they used with their youth. So several days ago I picked the book up and began to read. I've only gotten to page 50. This is very unusual for me (I read the whole last Harry Potter book in something like 7 hours). But this book... this book is making it very difficult for me to read.

The book is "a long way gone: memories of a boy soldier" by Ishmael Beah, a young man my age who grow up in Sierra Leone. When he was just 13, he was conscripted into the rebel army and forced to do horrible, horrible things. As an older teenager, he was rescued and brought to the United States where he lives and works now.

His writing is beautiful, and haunting, and very, very painful. I'm reading along and I feel physical pain in my stomach. What this young man has experienced, has had to see, had to do... it shouldn't even be humanly possible. After each chapter, and sometimes after just a passage, I have to put the book down and pray. Pray for the people in this world who remember, who survived. Pray for the people in this world who are living through such atrocities right now. Pray for the people in this world who are inflicting such violence on their sisters and brothers.

I'm have a really hard time reading. But I keep trying. I need to get through this book - can't put my head under the covers or pick up a happier novel. Even if I really, really want to.

it's here!

Last August Bev R. asked me to contribute a chapter to a book she and Peter were editting on Angels and Demons... well, months later, the book is now in my hands.

It's a fun feeling, reading what you wrote in print. It's also interesting because as I read I think "oh, I would switch that word order" or "hee, that's a funny line." Nothing like being frustrated and humored by your own work which you can't change a single word or puncuation mark too any more.

If some of you are so inclined, you can check out the book at InterVaristy Press's site. Don't think you can order it from amazon yet.

Just wanted to share a little excitement with all of you. Blessings!