by Cathy Baker | Faith |
The Right to Write by Julia Cameron has been my constant companion over the past few months. It’s a perfect fit for my purse while waiting for friends or appointments. Practically every page is dog-eared, underlined, or asterisked. Several weeks ago, I shared this post on Morning Pages as a result.
Today, I’m sharing a tool called Evening Notes. After all, not every one is a morning person, right?
It goes something like this: Ten minutes before you fall asleep, jot down a few simple sentences about your day. Julia uses this as her example:
“Today was productive but uphill. I seemed to be fighting a depression but I took good actions anyhow. I’m really stewing over my friendship with Michael. I wonder what better can be done on the project at work…”
From these sentences, extract a single question to consider before falling asleep. Julia chose What can I do about the project at work?
Simply pose the question and don’t worry about the answer. Thanks to our brilliantly and divinely designed minds (thank You, God) many of our answers begin to emerge at some point.
I’ve experienced similar circumstances when doing something “mindless” like walking, taking a shower, or taking my dog out for a potty break. Ideas and answers to questions long forgotten find their way to the surface when least expected. No doubt, a different part of the brain is at work here and it’s awe-inspiring when it happens.
Julia Cameron encourages those who try this tool to be alert, to notice and tabulate small, positive changes or answers.
Practicing both Morning Pages and Evening Notes is optimal but on those mornings when even a third cup of liquid caffeine refuses to rally a creative bone, it’s nice to know we have an evening option.
How about you? Are you a morning person? Do you tend to write more in the mornings or evenings?
The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands (Psalm 19:1).
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
A few of my childhood friends
An only child, such as myself, is known for entertaining imaginary friends. With them we clinked tea cups, whispered at bedtime and played out back in the summertime. It was only recently, however, that I realized another trusted friend had hitched a ride to my adulthood.
“Writing is a friend whose shoulder we can cry on. Writing is a confidant who listens and lets us sort things out. Writing is a comrade, marching with us through the steep days of sorrow and despair.” -Julia Cameron, The Right to Write
Writing has been a friend, a constant companion throughout my life. One letter in the above picture was handwritten to my grandfather when I was a young girl, maybe 8, asking if he loved me (using the reliable ✔ the box method, of course.) Another letter was to my cousin, Lisa, during a typing (yes, typing!) class in middle school. In high school I kept a daily diary and I’ve journaled my prayers for over twenty years. Over the past several years, God has also awakened a desire to write in ways I never imagined.
Like any true friendship, love is to be reciprocated. Here are four ways I try to show the love:
- Listen to the promptings within. Don’t ignore them. Jot them down! I carry a tiny Moleskin wherever I go. My scribbling rarely lets me down. How I wish I could say the same for my memory.
- Respond to those ideas. Pray over them, drink coffee, write a terrible first draft, drink more coffee. If you’re not quite ready to explore the ideas further, that’s okay. Keep them close by, ready for action.
- Feed the friendship. No one wants to take a friend for granted. If God has called us to write, it’s our responsibility to hone our God-inspired skills to the best of our ability. We notice intricate details, the dialogue of a couple eating ice cream behind us, along with a host of other quirks. Let’s return the love by reading, writing, and thanking God often.
- Rest. We wouldn’t exhaust our friends by keeping them on the go for days on end, would we? Our writing deserves the same benefit. I’ve failed miserably in the past but now I’m taking a break from writing on Sundays. No getting-ahead-on-my-blog-schedule kind of writing for me. I refuse to give up the truth that if God can rest one day from creating, so can I.
Imagine. Long before I knew or appreciated it, God decided to tuck a friend in my pocket that would help see me through a myriad of situations in my life.
How about you? Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, how can you look back and see your God-inspired skills used in unexpected ways?
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Psalm 139:1-4
