Eleven Hours of Happy

This is how you do it: You sit down at the keyboard and put one word after another until it is done. It's that easy and that hard. ~Neil Gaiman

This is going to be a great day! And intense. But fun. Maybe tiring. But satisfying. The Life of Radical Faith Bible Study has gotten a slow start but we'll fix that with seven hours of writing. And writing is certainly more fun when RB and I are writing together.

In one of my writing groups on Linked In someone asked the question, "Do you wait for inspiration or do you write on a schedule?" If I waited for inspiration, I'd never get my projects done. Although I've found that if I can get started, often inspiration comes. Someone said if you wait for inspiration, you're a waiter, not a writer. 

Yesterday I sat for six hours without once getting up. (Don't tell RB, or he'll start setting that annoying alarm for every hour again.) I didn't feel much inspiration, but I plodded on, word after word, and completed the thirteen-page project. 

Today, however, will be a different story.  How can you spend a day surrounded with books and not be inspired? And I have a treat in mind if we meet our writing goal -- when RB leaves to teach I will still have four hours to browse, read and journal. Now that's a treat! 

I love walking through the aisles, finding new loves and nodding my head in homage to my old friends setting proudly on the shelves. Haruki Murakami said, "With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book, and draw its fragrance deep inside me. That was enough to make me happy."

So if you're looking for me at Castleton Barnes and Noble -- I'm the girl touching the books, drawing their fragrance deep inside me. I'm the happy girl. 

What I'm Reading:

All In by Mark Batterson

Writing is more than combining the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet into words and sentences and paragraphs and chapters. For me, writing a book is an act of obedience that takes four to six months of early mornings and late nights.

I don't write with a keyboard.

I pray with it.

I worship with it.

I dream with it.

Chasing Frances by Ian Morgan Cron

Now Frances was a true follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had put off the old and put on the new. The camel had passed through the eye of the needle.

Spiritual Misfit by Michelle DeRusha

I prayed my fake prayers, signed sympathy cards, "You're in my thoughts and prayers," followed the rules and danced the dance, not really believing in my heart, yet refusing to admit my lack of faith, even to myself.

Kept for the Master's Use by Frances Ridley Havergal

Yes, though the vessels be fragile and earthen,

God commanded His glory to shine;

Treasure resplendent henceforth is our burthen,

Excellent power, not ours, but Divine.

I leave with you this Japanese proverb: If you believe everything you read, you better not read. That's my disclaimer. An intelligent, earnest reader finds the good and discards the rest.

Linked to:

 Cozy Reading Spot