Which is to say, I completed my novel today, in time to qualify for "winner" status in the NaNoWriMo community.
It feels extraordinarily satisfying.
Now, to edit.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
I WON!
Which is to say, I completed my novel today, in time to qualify for "winner" status in the NaNoWriMo community.
It feels extraordinarily satisfying.
Now, to edit.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Advent 1 Sunday: Dark and Sweet
Good Morning, and blessed Advent, friends!
It seems as if it would be more appropriate to write this in the evening, as the sun is setting, or just after. To me, evening is Advent time... it is a time of darkness made less so by the kindling of fire.
I love these words of Gertrud Mueller Nelson, from her exquisite book, To Dance With God:
It is Advent, and along with nature, we are a people waiting. Far out of the south, the winter light comes thin and milky. The days grow shorter and colder and the nights long. Try as we may, we cannot fully dismiss the fundamental feelings that lie deep at our roots, a mixture of feelings dark and sweet. Will the sun, the source of our life, ever return? Has the great light abandoned us?
This song captures, for me, those feelings 'dark and sweet.' A contemporary twist on an ancient hymn, it speaks my longings. Blessings, my friends.
It seems as if it would be more appropriate to write this in the evening, as the sun is setting, or just after. To me, evening is Advent time... it is a time of darkness made less so by the kindling of fire.
I love these words of Gertrud Mueller Nelson, from her exquisite book, To Dance With God:
It is Advent, and along with nature, we are a people waiting. Far out of the south, the winter light comes thin and milky. The days grow shorter and colder and the nights long. Try as we may, we cannot fully dismiss the fundamental feelings that lie deep at our roots, a mixture of feelings dark and sweet. Will the sun, the source of our life, ever return? Has the great light abandoned us?
This song captures, for me, those feelings 'dark and sweet.' A contemporary twist on an ancient hymn, it speaks my longings. Blessings, my friends.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
A Coming Out Story
Sunday, November 7, 2010
A Long Time Ago...
Someone from my church asked me to preach on "biblical family values."
I think this is the first installment of that sermon.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
I'm Doing It! Are You?
NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. November.
I first learned about NaNoWriMo four years ago, as evidenced here. I gave it a try then, the last November I was unemployed (thanks be to God). Ever since then, I've been thinking, Hey, I should do that again.
Why now? I have no earthly idea. I have a bear of a schedule that has me at meetings four nights a week since the beginning of September. I have a daughter who is a senior in high school, getting ready to launch (she submitted her early decision application to a far away school last Saturday. Gulp! I mean, Go Fighting Methodists!). I have a son who is in the process of moving into a new apartment in the Big City, and launching his own acting career (complete with two part-time jobs to pay the rent). And I have a very busy, hardworking girlfriend who likes to see me once in a while.
Oh, and I have to write a sermon every week. Based on the length of sermons I write, NaNoWriMo is asking me to write the equivalent of a sermon a day.
Nuts, right? Right. But I just want to do it.
Like the last novel (a truly treacly thing about coming of age and a trumped up mystery around a mother's death), I'm basically using this to process my own stuff. Like the last novel, I am full of doubts about this one being remotely of interest to anyone except those who love me dearly. (Maybe not even them!) But still, I write. Because, there's a whole crazy community out there doing the same thing, and it's November, and it's fun, and it's writing!
Wish me luck.
I first learned about NaNoWriMo four years ago, as evidenced here. I gave it a try then, the last November I was unemployed (thanks be to God). Ever since then, I've been thinking, Hey, I should do that again.
Why now? I have no earthly idea. I have a bear of a schedule that has me at meetings four nights a week since the beginning of September. I have a daughter who is a senior in high school, getting ready to launch (she submitted her early decision application to a far away school last Saturday. Gulp! I mean, Go Fighting Methodists!). I have a son who is in the process of moving into a new apartment in the Big City, and launching his own acting career (complete with two part-time jobs to pay the rent). And I have a very busy, hardworking girlfriend who likes to see me once in a while.
Oh, and I have to write a sermon every week. Based on the length of sermons I write, NaNoWriMo is asking me to write the equivalent of a sermon a day.
Nuts, right? Right. But I just want to do it.
Like the last novel (a truly treacly thing about coming of age and a trumped up mystery around a mother's death), I'm basically using this to process my own stuff. Like the last novel, I am full of doubts about this one being remotely of interest to anyone except those who love me dearly. (Maybe not even them!) But still, I write. Because, there's a whole crazy community out there doing the same thing, and it's November, and it's fun, and it's writing!
Wish me luck.
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