Each Wednesday (or thereabouts) I’ve been recording a Curiosity Journal to recap the previous week using these tag words: reading, playing, learning, reacting and writing.
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Reading
I just finished The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer: a simple but motivating reminder to seek God in the midst of everyday life…written by someone who obviously practiced what he preached. His love for the Lord inspires.Time to update my status on Goodreads.
Learning
My mind is not exactly a steel trap. In the past, I attempted to memorize passages of Scripture, but the words quickly slipped into the cobwebby corners of my mind and faded to a forgotten gray.To have any hope of locking them in, I simply must be diligent to revisit and resurrect those selections to review and refresh my mind. I took my husband’s suggestion to type them up and create a pdf file to load onto my Kindle, so I can click on it each morning after I’ve read my daily passage of Scripture.He’s brilliant. Having the memory work so handy has made a world of difference. I inevitably misplace or lose notebooks and card systems (I would have been a terrible Navigator) but I work hard to keep track of my Kindle.I look forward to maintaining this daily practice, perhaps one of the four decisions that will transform my life.
Playing
Writing about the cocoa? That was fun. Gross, but fun.
Writing
You may recall from last week that I want to improve my writing. At Scott Russell Sanders’ suggestion, I am going to read, analyze, and learn from quality literature, practicing various skills.To that end, the other day I read one of his short essays, a memory from childhood involving a Luna Moth. impressed with his description, I let my mind dredge up a childhood memory of my own and recalled the cocoa incident. Without taking a lot of time to plan, I wrote the story, trying to tap into at least three senses (advice from Gregory Wolfe, which I’ve preserved in another post from last fall, under “learning”). I decided to go ahead and share the little writing exercise on my blog on Monday, as practice became post.Now that I’m considering this part of my weekly routine, I hunted down ideas. A quick search turned up an article offering several ideas, including the “Comment Box Essay.” The author suggests visiting a favorite blog and reading the main article. Then, click on comments and compose a response that would normally enter the comment thread. However, instead of publishing the comment, stop. Copy-paste that response into a new post at my own blog and revise it to become a full-length post of my own (linking back to the original inspiration).By responding to writing with more writing, we create a bigger conversation on a given topic.I love the idea, so keep your eye open for a Comment Box Essay.
Reacting
What joy to hear Amber Haines read aloud, on the radio, my contribution to Mother Letters (see sidebar for affiliate link with Mother’s Day sale codes). Won’t you listen? Click through the link on this tweet:[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/motherletters/status/200232765956956160″]She’s got a clear, yet soothing, Southern accent…a much better representative for Not So Fast
than my brisk, clipped Northern voice.
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Notebook image by Ann Kroeker. All rights reserved. You may “pin” in a way that links back to this post.
Instead of zipping through this and leaving without a comment this morning, I want to slow down and tell you how much I appreciate you Ann. I love all of these things – especially your mother letter. Your heart is filled with such grace. It was such a joy to sit and talk with you face to face. You have a gift for listening and a gift for caring and a huge gift for sharing with words. Thank you.
Linda, thanks for slowing down and joining me here in the comments. And especially thank you for your encouragement regarding my mother letter. I would love to sit with you again and have tea. Time flew when we were at Laity together, and I regret that I couldn’t carve out time with you.
What a perfect Ann-thought in your letter! I love how you described slowing down. It made me feel honored for the attempts I make. Thanks also for posting the link because I no longer read parenting things anymore. They make me feel too awful. But this I could take into my weary, weary soul.
Thank you, Megan. This means so much, as you can imagine, to know that we can meet in this parenting place, two weary moms, drinking tea, sitting together in the not-knowing.
I look forward to reading your comment box essay! How interesting!
Well, I look forward to writing it–hope it turns out. 🙂
I love that you are always looking for new ways to learn, to grow. Most of the time, I feel like I’m barely keeping my head above water with the stuff of the everyday. I always come away from these posts inspired to try something new, or at the very least, something old in a new way:)
Aw, Kimberly. I wish we lived closer, so we could sit and chat.
Maybe this is the closest we can come to sitting and chatting–maybe meeting here in the comments, reading each other’s work, responding, discussing, is a next-best thing?
Closer would be better:) But yes, this is the next best. For sure.
I love the comment box idea – it seems a little like what Charity did for a while with the THC community, right? I’m going to click over to hear Amber read your wonderful Mother Letter next.
Yes, Diana, she did do that, limiting herself to the THC peeps. She and I talked a little about this basic idea when we were at the conference, since we were leading a discussion group that was about “Writing in Community.” We thought this idea of responding to writing with more writing was a kind of virtual community. She said she might resurrect and refine her There & Back Again concept. I hope she does. In the meantime, I’m going to give myself freedom to wander beyond the THC RSS feed, going where the Spirit leads. 🙂
I hope you enjoyed hearing Amber read! It seemed so special when the music started up.
Ann – I love the idea of “Comment Box Posts.” It was a lot like what I was trying to do with There and Back Again. I got a little side tracked with all the rules I created around that. I hope I can join you in this. It sounds like a wonderful writing exercise.
And your Mother Letter – oh my. It was beautiful. It gave me some things to think about right now in my life, and I’m not even a mother.
Much love, today, Ann. You amaze and inspire me.
On October 4, 1981, I wrote “In pursuit…” on the flyleaf of my Bible. I love that book. Pulled it out to thumb through again a few weeks ago.
The comment box essay sounds like fun.
In Pursuit of God…since 1981! Love that, Sandra. I definitely will be re-reading that one. It’s short and simple, yet rich and inspiring.
Like Diana mentioned the Comment Box Essay is kind of like Charity’s There & Back Again concept. I hope mine turns out nicely!
The Comment Box Essay sounds interesting but, please, leave your comment and then do the essay. As much as you adore receiving comments, so do others enjoy reading comments. Additionally, it allows us to follow someone home, as I did here and have been blessed greatly.
I’ll have to wait until I go to town tomorrow, visit the library and use their bandwidth to listen to the radio segment. Being Southern, I always enjoy hearing another Southern accent, especially when they have something worthwhile to say.
-smile-
Sandra, that is a great idea! Leave the short version and then go back and try the longer version. Then I can go back a second time and let them know that I wrote a whole post.
Thanks for taking the time to drop by, and I do hope you enjoy Amber’s reading!
The Comment Box Essay–that is brilliant. I won’t follow your advice here and now for this comment but will most certainly steal this idea for later 🙂
I enjoy reading other versions of the Bible, but when it comes to memorization, I always fall back on the King James version. Such as this good one that I love:
2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Consider this my repsonse:
http://littlemissscooter.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=_qT3WjcBAAA.2GFeejwJmcHdyP6U7HcUiA.QPq3gPN8gLPQpUIf4KRA5g&postId=1030174074000567821&type=POST