To pick up the phone and call a friend.
To put a few lines of thanks on a card and drop it in the mail.
These things begin in just a minute. Yet how often do I let days, months, years slide by without really investing in others. Others that I care about, that have been important in my life. So this week I set aside 15 minutes to “write out loving greetings to your friends” as suggested by Julia Cameron.
In the chapter titled, The Time Lie, Ms. Cameron writes:
Taking the time to write in our lives gives us the time of our lives. As we describe our environments, we begin to savor them.This is part of the reason I began journaling years ago. Taking just a minute to record a Scripture verse, something funny one of the kids said or did, a prayer through dark times. Journaling was a way to savor this life – the good and the bad. Over the last several years those minutes have begun stretching. I find myself attempting poetry to describe my life and feelings. Is it good poetry? Occasionally. Mainly it speaks to me and helps me define my life. Ms. Cameron explains:
Writing will fill your heart if you let it. It will fill your pages and help to fill your life.
So I took the books with me to the farm. From the seat of an ATV I read and the last two Initiation Tools left me amazed. First at how many different styles of writing I would like to take an adventure with and then at the experience itself. So I set the minutes on the timer and began to write. Wondering how I would ever be able to write for 30 minutes. Then wondering how to stop when the alarm chimed.
Part of a HighCallingBlogs book club reading. Check out more with the links below:
Related posts:
HCB's book club post Quiltwork
nancy’s hcb book club
L.L.’s Writing Theft
Glynn’s The Right to Write: Laying Track
Marilyn’s If
ELK’s flight
Monica’s Book Club (week 2): The Right to Write
Ann’s Imperfect Conditions
Maureen’s Creative Rituals for the Writing Life
Lyla’s Bad Writing and Croissants
Cassandra’s Living With My Writer
8 comments:
Nancy,
This was the part of the book that spoke volumes to me also. Time. The most precious resource. Your words here encourage me. I struggle so. But I love how she says writing will help to fill your life. I have found this to be true.
Happy writing!
wondering how you could start... and then on to how you could stop. Now that's a good journey :)
Writing is small things. In our infinite wisdom, we believe it's large things. But it's really small things, small steps, small acts.
I read while I walk. But promise me you weren't reading and writing while riding the ATV... :)
This time to just write a few notes. How little time it takes to make a difference, really, don't you think? It's next on my list...
i like hearing about journaling, and how this small act has led to other things like poetry.
I can absolutely identify with what you've said. I often think that if I don't have a huge block of time, I shouldn't even bother getting started on a project. And so it gets put off over and over again.
The book has encouraged me too - to just get started.
I love handwritten notes and cards and I send them...semi-often. In this electronic age, it almost seems like a lost art. Anytime I receive one, it is a cherished gift. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the prayers!
I can so identify with what you have shared here, Nancy, about time. It truly is a precious gift from Father, and yet I too often put things off because in my mind's eye it takes much longer than it would actually take if I would just DO IT. Writing notes of encouragement to others is one area where I especially fail. Thanks for sharing here, Nancy.
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