Hi.

I’ve been on a reading binge and it’s taking me awhile to come out of the stupor.

Since February 1, I’ve devoured 10 books.  My “Books Read in 2015” list has gone wild.  This has got to stop.

With my nose in a book, February flew by, which was exactly what I hoped.  But today the sun is shining, the snow is melting, the windows are open and it’s time to get my nose back into real life.

I need to reintroduce myself to my kitchen, my laundry basket and my writing desk.  They miss me.

I’ve experienced it before: a God-ordained “Aha!” moment.

My thought: “Should I write in my journal tonight or read another book?”

Immediate impression: “Do you want to leave your grandchildren a list of books you read or a book of words you wrote?”

Ok then.

So I will slow my gallop through books to a trot and see if I can find a few words of my own.

I went away on Sunday as a timid, toe-dipping, hesitant dabbler.  Jotting down silly thoughts was a hobby to enjoy but to keep under wraps. Throwing words out into the great internet cloud wasn’t intimidating because I didn’t have to actually look a handful of readers in the eye.  No expectations, no demands, no problem.

Dabble, dabble, dabble.

This week, I took a big breath and jumped in the deep end, cannonball-style.  I heard my silly scribbles read out loud and looked deep into others’ watery eyes through my own.  No longer words thrown about, but instead words placed with care and precision to reveal one delicate layer.

On Friday, I came home with a new name — Writer.

Thank you, Green Lake Christian Writer’s Conference.

It is June 22 which means VBS is over and my summer begins!  As I promised in the “10 Things I Miss” post (June 12, 2012) I have a list of books and my fingers are itching to hit the “Buy Now With One Click” button to load my Kindle.  Here’s my line up:

1. The God Box: Sharing My Mother’s Gift of Faith, Love and Letting Go by Mary Lou Quinlan — After her mother’s death, Mary Lou found boxes full of little scraps of paper with her mother’s prayers written on them.  How lovely.  I might start my own box this summer.

2.  On Writing Well by William Knowlton Zinsser — We’ll see if things improve around here after reading this.

3.  The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy —  I like history, I like presidents and I like getting inside exclusive places.

4.  Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)  by Suzanne Collins — Because I read the first book and heard this one is even better.

5.  A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty by Joni Eareckson Tada —  I have great respect for someone who has been in a wheelchair for decades, wrestles with suffering, yet still has a vital faith in God.

6.  A Week in the Life of Corinth by Ben Witherington III — I’ve read First Corinthians and Second Corinthians, but not this one.  I’m hoping this book will give depth to the other two.

7.  The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles  by Steven Pressfield and Shawn Coyne — I love books that have really long subtitles.  I don’t really know if I have inner creative battles, but I probably will after reading this book.  Then I will be able to break through them.  And win.

8.  Lit!  A Christian Guide to Reading Books by Tony Reinke —  Once I read a book titled “How to Read a Book”.  I loved it.  Books about how to read books are almost as good as reading real books.

9.  Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard —  I heard this is a trendy book.  Then I saw LeBron on SportsCenter reading it in the locker room before an NBA finals game and things turned out pretty good for him.

10.  I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman by Nora Ephron —  I sometimes feel bad about my middle age midriff bulge and grey hair.  So far, my neck hasn’t been a problem, so I’m thinking I’d better be ready if that’s the next thing to go. 

See?   I wasn’t kidding when I said I was going to get ten new books.  Yay for summer!  What are  you reading?

Anne Morrow Lindbergh is my BFF.  I’ve never met her personally and she’s no longer living, but I know if our paths had crossed, we would have been kindred spirits.  She was the wife of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, author of several books, and mother to six children, one of which was kidnapped and murdered.  I stumbled across her published diaries in a library years ago and our friendship began.  Anne and I wouldn’t have agreed on everything; her marriage wasn’t perfect, her life wasn’t without heartache, her views on God and spirituality would have made for some intense conversation between us.  But she bared her soul in her journals and wrote so beautifully about her desire to find balance.

Her book “Gift From the Sea” was published in 1955.  I take it off the shelf every few years, just to stop by for a visit with my interesting and thoughtful friend who was trying to figure out how to juggle being a wife, mother, artist and citizen.   She wrote about the different stages of a woman’s life, so every time I re-read this book, I find something new to appreciate because I’m in a new stage myself.

“But I want first of all – in fact, as an end to these other desires – to be at peace with myself.  I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can.  I want, in fact – to borrow from the language of the saints – to live ‘in grace’ as much of the time as possible.”

On marriage:  “A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules.  The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but swift and free…. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing.  Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back – it does not matter which.  Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it.” 

On children growing up and leaving home:  “A most uncomfortable stage followed, not sufficiently anticipated…Plenty of solitude, and a sudden panic at how to fill it…With me, it was not a question of simply filling up the space or the time.  I had many activities and even a well-established vocation to pursue.  But when a mother is left, the lone hub of a wheel, with no other lives revolving about her, she faces a total re-orientation.  It takes time to re-find the center of gravity.”

To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one. ~Chinese Saying