On, In, and Around Mondays: Writing Beyond the Picket Fence
I had to read it for a project, but the dullness of it overwhelmed me every time I opened the pages.
What was it? This malaise I felt? I could not put my finger on it. Until this morning.
Here in the Northeast, we are always reminded of seasons. The leaves fall. We pick them up. Seeds scatter. Spring brings milkweed where we had not seen it the year before. A hemlock has broken in winter, but there, look! A new maple at the edge of the yard.
The book, I knew its author from years before. But in these new pages, nothing had moved. The same leaves were on the same tree, and a little white picket fence—though aged—still bordered the property.
Yesterday I was listening to Over the Rhine's newer (albeit, not new) album The Trumpet Child (not sure why the dates are mixed up on Amazon, but this *is* a newer album :). Anyway, part of me still wanted Ohio. How could Karin and Linford leave Ohio? How dare they move? That musical place was just so... right.
Even as this discontent stirred, a surprising respect welled within me. These new songs have ache and beauty and playfulness (hard to find in one place). And I just can't stop listening to them. (Trouble is a current personal favorite.)
As an author, as a person, I want to put my finger on this kind of creative willingness to move. I do.
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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.
If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)
This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...
Labels: On in and Around Mondays, writing
posted by L.L. Barkat at 11:52 AM
11 Comments:
I think I understand. We want things to stay the same; we need things to change. And they do change. Nothing is fixed except Christ. I do think creatives need to chase change, sometimes, more than others: that regularly-scheduled change isn't quite enough.
Lovely thought-provoking post as always.
I have to try to remember when I come here not to click on your backgroud to scroll down, or I am transferred to a different site! Clever advertising strategy, and Getting Down With Jesus is very beautiful (that header!)
I think when I'm really honest, I want change only when it comes with some guarantee that the new will also be the improved, that I'll like the new better than the old, that I won't have to reexamine anything too closely in light of this new thing.
And that's not really welcoming change at all, is it?
Thought you would like to know as my girl and I listened to "Trouble," she said that it made her feel like dancing. Thanks for sharing the song and your thoughts on change.
So much to love about this post--the scenes of seasons change (something I miss in the climatic subtleties of Northern California), the thought-provoking thoughts on artistic growth and change, and a great song by a band I'd never heard of before! Yep! I love it alright!! Thank you!!
I just love getting Linford's notes from the road in my inbox. Just his musings on what they've been up to inspire me tremendously. Some of us live vicariously that way...
"As an author, as a person, I want to put my finger on this kind of creative willingness to move. I do."
A creative willingness to move. I like this! Sometimes, just thinking of what we ought to do next, how we make the right choice amidst too many options, can be almost paralyzing.
I wonder how we deal with the creative thoughts that bombard us constantly, thoughts that would be worth pursuing (which might lead to activities that would be worth pursuing, but we can't possibly pursue "everything").
I guess there's no set answer. We have to make some choices. We also have to accept that there may be more limitations in the physical/emotional realm than we can overcome to pursue the changes we wish for.
Maybe that sounds too cryptic. I'd like to write beyond the picket fence, but my body/mind often can't do that and also explore the messages from God that are "within" our own picket fence.
Thankfully, he is GREATER than what we want to do, as well as what we are able to do or be or think.
God bless you today, Laura.
oh, those transitions... that God would *move* me to trust him instinctively. Blessings to you. =)
I want new ideas and to convey them better and better. Perhaps I need to move to improve?
I am currently visiting where I grew up and somebody has swept all the leaves away. I guess everybody hires somebody now instead of waiting for living to slow down to rake leaves - and so they don't pile up. I so missed walking from my grandmother's house to my aunt's house and hearing that crunch of leaves, watching them cover my feet as I walked. A little too much civilization:(
I became a fan of Over the Rhine after hearing them in St. Louis at the 40th Anniversary L'Abri Conference. Then we saw them here in Charlotte years later.
There's some writing on one of their CD jackets that is extraordinary. It brought tears. It was about a time when they left the road to go back to Ohio to repair.
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