Reflections on Reading and Writing by Lorilee Guenter

 I am a voracious reader. I crack open a book and step through the door to another place, another time. Each book offers a chance to peak through the window into another person's life. I begin each year with a plan to keep a record of the books I read. I envision ending the year with a list of titles I've read, and authors I spent time with. I expect this list to remind me of the characters who entertained me, and the thinkers who made me consider a variety of ideas. Like many good resolutions, this one falls.

I read to be informed and to learn. I am actively reading at least one non-fiction book, maybe more at any given time. My e-reader currently has half a dozen titles in various stages of completion. Sometimes the books all relate to a topic I am researching. Other times biographies and autobiographies are found in my reading pile. This month none of the books I'm reading (physical or electronic) are biographical, which is unusual. I especially enjoy reading the published journals, letters, or biographies of authors and creators.

I read to be entertained. Some of the earliest books I read, remain favourites. I suspect it is because they opened up new worlds of imagination. The first book I signed out of the school library was "Charlotte's Web." Other early favourites include "Winnie the Pooh" and "Anne of Green Gables." Over the years many other characters and books have joined these three as favourites. There are now too many to list.

Sometimes I pick up a book by a new to me author and enjoy it so much that I hunt down everything I can find by them. Other times I pick up a book and set it aside after a few pages. (Confession: This rarely happens since even writing I don't enjoy is useful if I can determine what I dislike. My writing becomes stronger because of what I learn from other styles.) 

A few years ago I would say "I read anything except romance and horror." Then Dad challenged me to write a romantic suspense. Since I don't think it is possible to write a good book in a genre you don't read, I went to the library and signed out a stack of romance books. Some I enjoyed. Some I thought, "yeah right, like that's realistic." As someone who reads fantasy and science fiction, it might seem contradictory to critique a book as unrealistic. However, each genre has its own expectations and in my opinion there should be enough realism in romantic suspense that the reader is willing to enter the story. I have taken Dad's challenge and written a draft of a romantic suspense. It will take much revision and editing before I'm convinced it meets the realism test. I think I can still safely say I don't read horror, although that might be because no one has issued a challenge regarding horror and offered recommendations.

While I always have at least one book I am reading, I write in fits and starts. Sometimes the words spill from my pen. It is as if I am compelled to sit and think through the tip of my pen. Other times I seem to find any and every excuse to leave the pen undisturbed on the desk. I don't know why. I get agitated during these times because I should be writing. I should be creating not just consuming. The 'shoulds' throw up one block and then another until the tower of bricks topples for lack of a strong foundation. Excuses that began as good reasons are washed away. Then one idea leads to another. The time of contemplation and silent processing comes to an end. 

I begin to pick up my pen. I pause. I am learning to embrace the pause and trust the Holy Spirit will guide my words when I am ready for them. Until then, I read, I visit with friends and family, I garden and I wait. I try not to let agitation invade this time of waiting. I am learning, but I am not there yet. Too often I still run on ahead, only to crash into the tower of excuses. Perhaps one day I will recognise the healthy rhythm God is trying to teach me.

Lorilee Guenter is a Saskatoon based artist and writer. Her writing stems from the many questions she finds herself pondering and from the things she observes on her wanderings. One such question is how did events she lived through become the subject of history.

In the Middle of Excuses by Lorilee Guenter

 

There are many projects on my work in progress pile. I am convinced I always will have a long list of projects. In fact, at least for me, this is a good thing. If I no longer have an in progress list, I am no longer trying new things and starting new writing or art. 

There are many ideas I never started. Some of those ideas I can no longer remember even vague details. I assume they are not important for me to work on at this time. I may have missed a window to work or they may just have been random ideas. I don't need to remember every idea. They are not all for me to work on. I also have unstarted projects or unaddressed ideas that continue to surface, as if nagging me to give them attention. I think these projects, though not officially started, belong on my work in progress list because I continue to give mental space to them.

The middle contains the mess. I need to make choices with regards to this list. I have made many excuses over the years for why things are not finished. My excuses often masquerade as good reasons. The need to finish research has stalled a few projects. The need to clean up a space to spread out a sewing project is another excuse dressed up as a reason. If I really wanted to I could make space long enough to finish, instead I hold back and hold onto the excuse. If the research isn't started; if space is not made or time set into the schedule; they all become an excuse. I am good at making excuses and disguising them. A few years ago I read a book that challenged me to test each reason and consider if the reason is really an excuse. In other words, does my reason have an excuse or a series of excuses holding me back from taking the next step. Almost always, the answer for me, is yes. 

Now that I have analysed down to the root of why projects remain on my work in progress pile, I can take steps to remove the excuses and work back up the chain until I have what I need to move the process forward. I wish I could say I recognize the excuses and root them out with action. I don't until I begin to become frustrated with a lack of progress finishing anything.

Excuses are only one cause of unfinished projects taking up space in my house and on my computer. Some things are not meant to be finished. This a category for me to use because it can excuse a lack of follow through. I have writing that when I pull it out to work on, I find it is not worth finishing. It was an exercise I needed at the time I started it. It taught me something. I return these to the unfinished pile in case God prompts me to go back to them to add to them or pull out character ideas from them. Mostly these are finished because they served their purpose, I just did not recognise that purpose at that time. It is easy for me to let fear move too many things into this category. Once that happens I have moved back into the territory of excuse. 

I am a work in progress. I make excuses. I let fear hold me back. I choose to let roadblocks stall projects that need to be completed. I hold onto project too long once they need to be released. Thankfully my Creator doesn't stop part way, he knows what to hold onto and what to release. Philippians 1:6 reminds me that God doesn't stop. He works on and with His creation until it is complete. He walks with me through the messy middles of life and writing. When I let Him, He resolves the tension of the messy middle by showing me the fear and excuses holding me back. Then He guides me through them.

Today I'm letting Him guide me and teach me through the projects I work on. Tomorrow I will have a choice to continue or to try to do it my way. Each day I choose to let God remove the excuses it is easier to hear His voice and follow His leading so that when tomorrow becomes today, I will once again let Him guide and teach me.

Dealing with Distraction by Lorilee Guenter

 

Games. Travel. Media. Reading. Even housework. 

My days are filled with distraction. Sometimes, the distractions distract me from one another, leaving a trail of unfinished projects and tasks. 

During some seasons, I deal with them well. My focus may wander but my routines, the rhythms of my  days, help me minimize them. In other seasons, the routines crumble and the rhythms change. It is these days and these times when it becomes difficult and even feels impossible to determine which things are important.

Some of the distractions are important and even necessary. These are opportunities for rest and refreshment. They are opportunities to connect with and to help people around me. The days offer experiences that add to the image well and become part of future creative projects from art to poetry and even essay or fiction. The days add character and build relationship.

It took years of frustration to embrace the change of opportunity and focus for each season. Even now I still struggle. I recognize quicker that the distractions are part of a season of rest and renewal. However, I can be a slow learner and, when I expect my routine will remain the same winter, spring, summer, and fall, I set myself up for frustration -- a frustration caused by stubbornness and pride. God gave us seasons as an example in nature. Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us there is a season to plant and a season to harvest. There is a season for everything, including rest. I can not plant a garden in January nor can I harvest in March. Why then should I be surprised that in January the images and ideas bubble up and bloom while in July the images and ideas are planted as I hike, garden and explore the abundance of creation alive around me? Just as my houseplants may bloom in January, some writing happens in July. The balance between the two is reflected in the season.

Summer is one of my seasons of distraction - necessary and renewing distraction. This year spring was also a season of distraction, but not the same time of refreshment. It was a time of frustration and excuse. It began with mandated rest and recovery that opened the way for mental spinning as I tried to catch up on everything at once and did nothing at all. Except, as I look back, it wasn't nothing. Mixed in amongst the time wasters were lessons for now and in the future. As I reflect, I notice once again how God uses every circumstance for His glory, even the ones that come from us giving in to the easy way instead of following His nudges and promptings. He redeems our mistakes, our failures, and our lost time. We miss out on the best He had originally planned for us since we gave that up, however temporarily, for our own way.

As I write this, I am sitting surrounded by plants and soft music. It is the perfect space to reflect. Or is it? Outside this terrace the sounds of the city continue. The glass walls that surround this oasis do not block out the horns, the rumbles of large vehicle, or the general hum of distraction. I did not expect to be here. I have a choice to use this as a gift God provided in an unexpected way or to embrace the distraction provided by the bustle of so many people living and working in close proximity. Even that distraction is one of God's gifts. Tomorrow, I will venture out and embrace the images, people, and opportunities God has orchestrated. My writing and my life are improved when I remember to look for God's hand at work. It is only then that I can discern which distractions are time wasters, and which are gifts from God that He is waiting for me to recognize. 

Lorilee Guenter is a Saskatoon based writer and artist who is learning to embrace those descriptors. She has learned that if you keep your eyes open you will find nuggets of inspiration everywhere. They are God's gift to fuel her creativity.

Writing Advice from Authors of the World’s Best Selling Anthology - Pamela Mytroen

What is the most common excuse for not writing? For me it is this: Why spend months, and even years in researching and writing when I have no guarantee that my work will be published? What a waste of time. Shouldn’t I invest all that effort into pursuits that produce results I can see?

What if the authors of God’s Word had had this same attitude? If Abraham had said, “No, that’s ridiculous. I’m not packing up my wife, my servants and my thousands of animals and trekking off to some unknown land.”

If Moses had said, “Forget it, I’m not climbing that mountain to seek a God I cannot see.” He would not have written the Ten Commandments, which is some of the earliest writing ever discovered, and has shaped the policies of every developed nation for over 3000 years.

Instead, Moses persevered because he chose to see the invisible. (Hebrews 11:27).

Noah also chose to listen to God’s warning about things not yet seen, and to build an ark to save his family (Hebrews 11:7).

Rahab chose to see victory for the rag-tag Hebrew army against her walled city. While Jericho was guarded by soldiers equipped with the latest weapons and backed by the military strength of Egypt, she chose instead chose to see that which was invisible. Her story has endured for centuries.

That puts my writing into another perspective. Many of these authors never saw their work published and they never saw the things they prophesied come true. They died, in some cases, hundreds of years before they were affirmed.

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance” (Hebrews 11:13).

God cradled their words close to his heart. He cherished them until the timing was right and then released them to the world – first in his Son, the living Word, and later through the scribes as they transcribed the ancient scrolls and, running for their lives, hid them. A shepherd boy discovered original parchments from the Hebrew Bible in the caves of Qumran nearly 2000 years after the life of Jesus.

God cradles our writing too. Our words, though they are not the inspired and infallible Word of God, are inspired by Him. Do you ever feel like you’re swept along when you get into your writing? So did the ancient prophets.

“...Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

I can choose to see the invisible. I can welcome the affirmation of my words from a distance, as these Godly people exemplified. I must push through my mistakes, the rejections, my self-doubt, and press on in faith, knowing that the writing I do now will have a purpose later.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every thing that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...” Hebrews 12:1,2a.

by Pamela Mytroen

No Buts - Just Go - Janis Cox

by Jan Cox

We are such an argumentative people. The word “but” means:

“on the contrary; yet, except”

Reason: We think – and if there is a reason to doubt, disagree or want another way, we will say it. At least I will. I delve into a discussion and say my thoughts. I want to be heard. I want to let others know my opinion. I think a lot. Mmm... Do I do this with God? When I know in my heart that God wants me to ‘go’ somewhere or ‘do’ something, do I obey immediately? Do I think or do I pray and talk to Him? We are called to obey. There are many Scriptures that tell us we are to obey God. Here are two:

Jeremiah 42:6 “Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God.”

Exodus 19:5 “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.”

I know that I come up with many excuses. Just as the man in Luke does.

Luke 9:61 : “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Here are some of my excuses:

Do I have time? I can’t do that. What will happen if I do that? That’s too hard. I’m afraid of what she/he will say.

Here is another BUT. This one is spiritual. BUT what if I do obey? Will this glorify God? Will this bring joy to my heart? We are commanded to obey. Oswald Chambers for September 27:

"In a conflict of loyalty, obey Jesus Christ at all costs."

Obey Jesus Christ at all costs. Wow - I had better rethink my thinking. Are you hearing a call? Have you taken time to listen to Him? Has He told you to ‘go’ or ‘do’ something? What is your excuse? Do you say YES, LORD, BUT….? I remember a song from a few years ago and the words kept coming to me this morning:

I am the king of excuses. I despise my own behaviour. I am in need of a Saviour.

You can view it here In the Light on You Tube or below. Hope it blesses you.