A Single Layer

2013 is fast approaching, and with it the recollection that resolutions are in order. Who doesn't hope that each new year might bring with it some kind of change, however insignificant? I have a few ideas for new year's resolutions, one of which would go something like "read the books you already own." Most years I make some resolution regarding books. This past year was 1) to read more and frivolously, and 2) to blog about it . I have a very bad habit of buying more books than I can read, and then going out and getting even more at the library. 2012 has been a year of reading as much as possible, however ridiculous the material - and in the first part of the year I took that very seriously, reading through about thirty young adult novels, among other things, at a remarkable pace, on top of my usual editing load. I flagged off a good deal this fall, and I'm now about ten books behind my goal for the year. But this is not a resolution to get anxious about. Now...

And on a completely unrelated note, there's an interview with Madeleine L'Engle biographer Leonard S. Marcus on Omnivoracious . Whatever you think or feel of Amazon, you gotta love their book bloggers.

" The good news of Christmas is that the atmosphere of fear and hostility isn’t the natural climate for human beings, and it can be changed." - Rowan Williams ,  courtesy of Ayjay

If blog posts were articles, I'd wait to write this till I'd done some research. But I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately, and that will have to do for now. The topic being, as the title suggests, the relationship between freedom and safety. I was thinking about this a lot during the election, as I tried to mentally sift the different parties into their fundamental ideals. There being so little harmony between parties, it seemed like a helpful exercise. Why is it that we are so divided? What values are so conflicting that they can create such dissension? Recent events have brought the two to mind again. I'm not going to give any space here to the massacre at Sandy Hook, because enough has been said and enough can never be said, and that's the way it is with tragedy. I am not ready to attempt to do justice to it. So, moving slightly through that, I was struck by how quickly people responded to the horror with a call to metaphorical arms against...w...

Featured this morning in our church bulletin, a recent Advent poem of mine. Though the version for the service had one line adjustment for the sake of its context; this is the original. More often than not they arrived on foot,  like travelers come a long distance. Think of the three at which Sarah laughed. Think of the one standing in Balaam’s path. The shepherds, aghast at the one, then suddenly surrounded face to face with a host,  looked angels in the eyes. Scattered among the sheep— not suspended—stalking toward them purposefully  with peace to those on whom . The shepherds were not the first. All of Israel followed the angel to Canaan, and it was the angels who brought fire to Sodom. An angel alone led the ram to Abraham. And we haven’t yet mentioned the cherubim, divine dragons, guardians of the throne, strange beasts. This is the company the angels keep. The messengers say do not be afraid , and often lift men from ...

"What if—the basis of all story. The small child asks all the what ifs. All of life is a story, story unravelling and revealing meaning. Despite our inability to control circumstances, we are given the gift of being free to respond to them in our own way, creatively or destructively."

Grace Bonney over at DesignSponge posted Sugru's "Fixer's Manifesto" on the blog today. Which got me thinking about manifestos in general, and resolutions, especially as we're nearing a new year. The blurry weeks of late December and early January are when so many people make resolutions they fail to keep and (usually) fail to try to keep. But there's value in developing a set of guideposts for each season of your life, standards if you will, to help you develop yourself, your work, or your relationships in ways that are important to you. Bonney also linked to 99U's 5 Manifestos for Art, Life & Business , which include such notable resolvers as Steve Jobs, Leo Tolstoy, and Frank Lloyd Wright. All this is leading to the obvious questions: What is your manifesto? What are your resolutions? What is your set of standards for the season?

I've come across a few new musical experiences lately I thought I'd share. What with holidays and all, it's a good time to be introduced to new songs - and singers. Maggie Ritchie and I went to college together, but I'd buy her album Something Wonderful whether I knew her or not. I don't know the first thing about reviewing music, though, so I won't tell you much about it. Just sample the songs yourself and tell me what you think. Several musical people from my church put together an album of songs we sing a lot. Which is a lame introduction to a beautiful collection, Songs of Grace . If you like what you hear, the doors are open at 9:30 every Sunday.

Both—one at the oven in the square, one at the sawhorse— build from the warm earth, shaping with calloused hands. Joseph in the woodshop,  always a quiet man, now grave in upturned admiration, guides the hands of the boy  (the one who caused such a stir and set the town fathers talking and the unwise wives clucking) bearing the sharp blade over the wood. The boy says, ‘teach me,’ and the quiet father steps back in fear. The man has lost a finger in his day— and almost lost a hand. There was a Sabbath when the boy returned from the Rabbi (the unleavened bread sat cold in the corner). The father thought to ask the son for healing— it had been a helpful finger. But by the time the sun had set, the father had forgot the need— and though his faith  (hidden as it was on the edge of Nazareth) was firm and sure, he was a man of simple plans and could better bear the weight of a cedar branch than aspire to miracle. ...

I will definitely be visiting this every day.

God With Us:  Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas , edited by Gregory Wolfe God is in the Manger , by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri J.M. Nouwen Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas Advent Conspiracy: Can Christmas Still Change the World?  by Rick McKinley, Chris Seay, and Greg Holder Preparing for Jesus , by Walter Wangerin Jr. Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent , by Enuma Okoro

This coming Sunday marks the beginning of Advent. Every year I try to take Advent as seriously as possible, and every year that seems to look a little different. I'm posting a few resources here for the similarly serious. Please let me know if any of them are particularly helpful to you. Creighton University's Praying Advent 2012  (This has almost everything you could want in terms of understanding the schedule of the season and praying through it.) The Advent Conspiracy  (Please check this one out - and share it!) Grace Brethren Church of Long Beach sermons from 2011 (Advent series at the top) Catholic Scripture readings for each day of Advent If you know of any others that have been helpful to you, please send them my way. I'm also "curating" a list of some good music for Advent, so let me know if there's anything you appreciate out of the cacophony of the season. To finish us off, here's every other Advent post I've shared in the p...

Thanksgiving is a strange holiday. We talk about being grateful, but the day seems devoted to gorging ourselves on more food than we need followed by shopping for as much stuff as we can get for as little money as possible. We complain about family, travel, and weight gain. What we do not do, it seems, is find ways to be grateful. I say "find ways to be," because gratitude ought to be an activity, not just a feeling. It's perhaps because we treat it like a feeling that it holds so little influence over us. I don't know. What I do know is that it is an opportunity to shed, however briefly, our sense of entitlement, our resentments over things we don't have, and to redefine what it is we want during this season. More things? Newer things? Better things? Or something more? Image from Dishing Having said this, I do want to mention that food traditions are among my favorite of all traditions. There's a comfort to the consistency of Thanksgiving. The troubl...

It's election day; I voted and so should you. As I was walking out of the polling place earlier, I thought, "There, now I'm responsible for what comes next." I took another step and corrected myself. "I'd be just as responsible if I hadn't voted at all." I was also thinking about responsibility yesterday, but in a different context. I was thinking about the difference between The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural (bear with me). In TVD , whenever something horrible happens, Elena (the main character) does a lot of stupid things and carries a lot of unnecessary burdens because this or that trauma is somehow supposedly her fault. In Supernatural , Sam and Dean do a lot of stupid things too, but rarely from a sense of guilt. They act out of a sense of responsibility for one another and they live (or die) with the consequences. Take a guess which characters are more compelling. So today, after my little responsibility thoughts, I was driving b...

via Design Crush , origins unknown

on all hallow’s eve when the spirits of saints rise with a whisper and a rap on your door, we gather, we children who are not afraid, we gather  to send them all home. we send them all home  with fire and song, we send them all home with dancing.

A week ago I went to an open mic night at a local coffeeshop with a friend of mine. She sang along with a dozen or more other performers for about three hours, and I listened. The mic was open for poetry as well - or "spoken word," as it's apparently called now - but I didn't have anything with me, and I wasn't really in the mood to get up on stage. Sometimes developing your creativity requires stepping back and listening. Setting aside the urge to be heard, and opening your own ears. This is why the most oft repeated rule for writers is "read more." Because you do not develop an ear or an eye for your own work if you do not exercise that same ear and eye with other people's works.  I learned a few things last week. First, that it's a good thing to cheer loudly for everyone, whether they were any good or not. At the very least, you are cheering on their bravery. Second, that imitation really is an excellent starting point for any work (t...

1. Stop measuring your work by word or page count. Write until you've said something and said it well. 2. Study grammar in your spare time. Put down the Sunday morning crossword and start diagramming sentences. 3. Only steal ideas from the Greeks. 4. Write with a fine pen on beautiful paper. Your words will be better. Guaranteed. 5. Don't sacrifice good storytelling for accuracy. Unless you're writing non-fiction, of course. 6. There are few books ( The Idiot , the Bible) that can get away with a protagonist who has no flaws. Your book probably isn't one of them. 7. There is no substitute for reading a good book. If you write but do not read, you're doing something wrong. 8. Be nice to people. 9. If everyone followed the rule "write what you know," our libraries would be very small indeed. 10. Every writer starts with people-watching. 11. Be careful pulling stories from your past. You may begin to confuse your memories with your manusc...

Vaguely considering compiling Advent-related poetry here as we approach that season. Thoughts?

Designed  by Tim Easley .