September Twenty- Eighteen

September Twenty-Eighteen 

The following words are from a reflection I ran across that Colum McCann

titled "Letter to a Young Writer." (Colum McCann is an Irish fiction author). 

May some of his wisdom offered here be an encouragement to you today... 

"Do the things that do not compute. Be earnest. Be devoted. Be subversive of ease. Read aloud. Risk yourself. Do not be afraid of sentiment even when others call it sentimentality. Be ready to get ripped to pieces: It happens. Permit yourself anger. Fail. Take pause. Accept the rejections. Be vivified by collapse. Try resuscitation. Have wonder. Bear your portion of the world. 

Find a reader you trust. Trust them back. Be a student, not a teacher, even when you teach….If you believe the good reviews, you must believe the bad. Still, don’t hammer yourself. Do not allow your heart to harden. Face it, the cynics have better one-liners than we do. Take heart: they can never finish their stories. Have trust in the staying power of what is good. 

Enjoy difficulty. Embrace mystery. Find the universal in the local. Put your faith in language—character will follow and plot, too, will eventually emerge. Push yourself further. Do not tread water. It is possible to survive that way, but impossible to write. Transcend the personal. Prove that you are alive. 

We get our voice from the voices of others... Imitate. Become your own voice. Sing. Write about that which you want to know. Better still, write towards that which you don’t know. The best work comes from outside yourself. Only then will it reach within. Restore what has been devalued by others. Write beyond despair. 

Make justice from reality. Make vision from the dark. The considered grief is so much better than the unconsidered. Be suspicious of that which gives you too much consolation. Hope and belief and faith will fail you often. So what? Share your rage. Resist. Denounce. Have stamina. Have courage. Have perseverance. The quiet lines matter as much as those which make noise.

 Trust your blue pen, but don’t forget the red one. Allow your fear. Don’t be didactic. Make an argument for the imagined. Begin with doubt. Be an explorer, not a tourist. Go somewhere nobody else has gone, preferably towards beauty, hard beauty. Fight for repair. 

Believe in detail. Unique your language. A story begins long before its first word. It ends long after its last. Don’t panic. Trust your reader. Reveal a truth that isn’t yet there. At the same time, entertain. Satisfy the appetite for seriousness and joy. Dilate your nostrils. Fill your lungs with language. A lot can be taken from you—even your life—but not your stories about your life. So this, then, is a word, not without love, to a young writer: Write." 

the perfect gift

I got to go to a conference for SPU yesterday (but it was a long day as I left at 6:30 a.m. and did not return until 9:30 p.m.  last night) and this was waiting on the counter for me from our sweet neighbor Jaime. 

The best treat after a really full week!  

So grateful for these kinds of gifts that feel like a kiss on the cheek from God... 

Homecoming Queen

Anna's tutu was the perfect choice for Spirit Day for Roosevelt Homecoming weekend... 

playdoh in college

Here's what I've been up to in my intro classes this week... 

Nothing like whipping out some playdoh in college. 

Every year in the fall in my intro classes, I ask students to create something out of playdoh and create something that represents something significant in their lives. It's always such a great way to get to know students and to shake things up for that first class. 

grad students (classroom management class) 

undergrad students (children's literature class) 

Checkerboard Cake

Micah and I whipped up a checkerboard cake yesterday to gear up for his big 10th birthday on Friday (yay double digits!),  and we were cracking up at this cheesy box that the cake pans came in.  

Too bad we could not match the box and that I did not also have a checkerboard apron and that he did not have a checkerboard design on a handkerchief in his pocket! 

Almost TEN!! 

What's your superpower?

An interview question common at Microsoft is "What's your superpower?" so I asked this question around the dinner table to talk about strengths we recognize in ourselves and in each other. 

No surprise, Taylor was quick to quote The Office.  

Steve Carrell's character Michael Scott is so eager to answer the job interview question "What is your greatest weakness?" that he uses the question "What are your greatest strengths?" as a cue for his canned response. "Why don't I tell you what my greatest weaknesses are?" he tells his prospective boss. "I work too hard, I care too much, and sometimes I can be too invested in my job." 

Anyway, after joking about the Office commentary, it was a fun conversation to hear Anna and Taylor talk about things they recognize as their "superpowers." Taylor mentioned tenacity and Anna talked about consistency and dedication. 

I found these little finger capes on Etsy and ordered a few to have on hand because you never know when you'll need one.  

What's your superpower? 

extended family

Sure love these Langford girls.... (fun pix from small group last night...) 

donut date

We had to check out the new(ish) donut shop in the neighborhood down in UVillage. 

Taylor got the royal treatment and we delivered his to him in bed. :) 

Saturday night at the movies

Too much fun.... 

the bunny ate my homework

Taylor really could have told his teacher that his bunny ate his homework. 

Thankfully, I don't think he had to turn this in 

because I am not sure if it would have been a believable story:) 

Harry Potter Day 2018

Grateful for our annual tradition of taking a Harry Potter picture 

before new student convocation each year! 

Driving Test

Anna took her driving test this morning in the car and passed with flying colors!! 

Now just two months until her license! 

96% - go girl!! 

:) note the new Children of the Kingdom sticker on my car too!! 

Fall is in the air

trying out new things

These pictures were from our trip to Rainier at the beginning of the month, but I'm sharing them because I am so excited that Anna is taking photography at Roosevelt this fall and is really enjoinig it.  Since she dropped band, it freed up her schedule for some really great classes to check out. Next semester, she is going to try out engineering, and then junior year, she is hoping to take an architecture class. So cool! 

Sick Day

I've enjoyed hanging out on the couch with Anna this morning as she's been laying low this weekend feeling a little under the weather...

She seems to be on the mend, and I do believe that Poppy has been good medicine. We read this lovely "liturgy for a sick day" this morning and wanted to pass it on...

"For this brief pause, for this reminder and of dependence upon you, I thank you, O Lord.
A day such as this, in which I endure a measure of sickness or unease,
is a reminder that the redemption of all things is not yet complete.
It is a reminder that this body will decline and one day fail, and so it is also a reminder that the ways
I spend my days matter- for my hours,  revealed like veins of gold beneath a rushing stream, are a limited resource to be purposefully mined or forever lost.
A day such as this is a reminder that good health and vigor are gifts to be consciously and gratefully enjoyed, and to be invested while they might, in eternal things. So let me finish this day, O Lord, wiser than I began in.
Let me live now, in light of this knowledge that a time might come in this life when I feel such sickness and discomfort for a long season, when I must adjust to a "new normal" when my abilities are limited either by the slow decline of age or from some accident, injury or disease. Therefore, let me use the good health that I have while I have it, presuming nothing.
Let me use it to serve well, to love well, to care for your people,your creation, to spend my allotted days cherishing hearts, creating beauty, bringing order, offering  healing, delighting in your goodness manifest to me in a million ways, and so to one day come to the end of my days having stewarded them well. Heal my body from this sickness, O Christ My Healer. Be gracious. Give rest.
Raise me again to health with a heightened sense of thankfulness for the unmerited gift of well-being, and also with a greater-sense of compassion for those who suffer lingering ailment, disease or discomfort. Teach me by my own small sufferings to be a better minister and friend to those who suffer greatly. So let even the unease I feel today work as your servant, accomplishing your better purposes in me."
-Douglas Kaine Mckelvey Every Moment Holy 

best buy

Taylor scored today to find this year's Halloween costume at our favorite thrift shop. He is counting down the days until Halloween now, but in the meantime, he sure is cozy here on this rainy afternoon at home.