When I was relatively new to blogging, every once in a while I'd be scanning comments on somebody's post and spot one by L.L. Barkat. I'd read the well-formed response and think, "Wow. That person's smart!" I wasn't sure, at first, if this person was male or female. No photo confirmed gender, and the initials L.L. didn't help me know for certain. At some point I finally … [Read more...]
The End of Fun as We Know It?
Until Robin pointed it out, I didn't realize that there was a traveling carnival bopping around the blogosphere called "Fun Monday." It's shared by several bloggers, so there isn't one central location (though Robin decided to set up a clearinghouse of all the previous Fun Mondays here).Today's Fun Monday invited participants to post photos or descriptions of their … [Read more...]
6 Questions to Ask Yourself
I like to explore why I make certain choices or feel strongly about various issues. So I find that a few questions like these get me thinking and writing and praying. Sometimes I use variations on these questions with my friends, generating some interesting discussion. I'd love to sit and have tea with you so we could explore these six questions. They're not only great … [Read more...]
7 Ways to Enjoy Everyday Fun with Chores
Daily life can be such a drag, so blah. The chores can be tedious. The drive to work, dull. Some days can be reduced to scrub, swipe, fold, wash, rinse, repeat; others, to conquering an overwhelming to-do list or in-box. One way to approach the daily grind is simply to take a deep breath and dig in, applying self-discipline, determination, willpower, and grit. … [Read more...]
Five Days of How-To Posts: A blog experiment offering helpful information in bullet-point form
What makes a post popular?On my blog, which is an unfocused mish-mash of ideas that flit through my mind at any given moment, the all-time top posts are as follows: Castile Soap for a Simpler Life (and blemish-free face) Thick and Chewy, Fast and Easy Pizza Dough Overnight Crockpot Steel-Cut OatmealWhat am I doing posting about the perils of my attempts to multi-task?Why … [Read more...]
Final Festival Report: Katherine Paterson on Beauty
One major revelation I walked away with from the Festival is my need to improve my note-taking skills. I have only sparse, sketchy sentence fragments to work with. Normally I record interviews and messages so that I can review them later, but the organizers didn't allow it. So my final notes are from Katherine Paterson's closing session. She said a few things that stood … [Read more...]
Rob Bell on Boiling Down to the Essence
I still have a few notes left from the Festival.This comes from the conversation-style session with Rob Bell one afternoon near the end of the Festival. If you're interested, I found an interview of Bell online that had a few similar thoughts, but it's dated. I think based on some of his answers in that article that he's evolved as a creative artist-preacher-writer, having … [Read more...]
Books offer a Rehearsal for Life
At the Festival of Faith & Writing, children's book author (twice awarded the Newbery Medal) Katherine Paterson sat with her son David to discuss the process of transforming the story of Bridge to Terabithia from book to film. (EW interviewed David for a story about the process with some of the same information.) David was co-writer and producer for the film. He … [Read more...]
Kathleen Norris, Acedia, and the Commonplace Book
Kathleen Norris's session at the Festival of Faith & Writing offered some good stuff, though my notes are spotty. She spent most of the time defining that word, "acedia," that has fallen out of usage. She's trying to resurrect it, because she thinks it captures our current culture's general boredom, apathy, or ennui. None of those words expresses the attitude and … [Read more...]
Yann Martel on Life of Pi, Interpretation, Stillness, and Art
A couple of years ago, urged by a friend, I read Life of Pi, by Yann Martel.It left me fascinated, and a little confused. I guess I'm not so good with obscure stuff. So I was quite interested that the Festival of Faith & Writing brought him to speak. Would he explain the book for the slow-of-brain?The evening began with an amusing glitch. Martel was introduced by a … [Read more...]
You. Are. Blessed.
During the festival, I spent time with several single people. I was walking with one of them to a lecture and mentioned that I was blogging. He said that some friends of his were bloggers, as well. I asked if they had a particular topic that they focused on, or if they just wrote about life.He said that one of them was married, and she and her husband were trying to have a … [Read more...]
Connections and Conclusions
As I stepped into the room where Phyllis Tickle was speaking, our eyes met and, in her words later, "I jumped! Did you see me jump?" She remembered. She remembered the transatlantic flight we shared in 2005, and the descent that led to my child's airsickness. She remembered how my husband and I mopped up vomit as the plane landed. She remembered handing me a paper … [Read more...]
Festival Friends
I rode up with a friend of mine, but she wasn't attending the festival. She's visiting her sister here in Grand Rapids. Another friend of hers was going to be at the festival, but I'd never met the friend of my friend.What I'm trying to say is that I came alone.And a mom of four doesn't go places alone very often.So as I rode the shuttle bus from the hotel to the college … [Read more...]
Live, from Grand Rapids, it's the Festival of Faith and Writing!
Approximately 2,000 writers, readers, editors, publishers, and assorted literary types are converging at Calvin College for the biennial Festival of Faith and Writing.I'm here for the first time ever, to listen and take notes.This event pulls together a wide range of authors--novelists, poets, essayists, memoirists--to present various thoughts on writing and faith. And … [Read more...]
The Blessing of Boredom
"I'm bored," a child whines. Oh, no! Quick, pull out the paints or Playdough—heaven forbid the child actually sits with nothing to do. In our entertainment-obsessed society, we almost panic at the thought of having nothing to do, at being bored. The world seems to want to fill every spare moment with productivity or fun. But is boredom such a bad thing? Could boredom … [Read more...]
