Creative Life – Page 35 – Rebekah Lyn Books

Do You Keep a Diary?

I’m reading a thick book called, A Diary of the Century by Edward Robb Ellis. He started keeping a diary in 1927 when he was seventeen and had boxes full of his writings when he died at 83. I’m just to the part where he got his first full-time job for Associated Press in New Orleans when Huey Long was trying to become the dictator of Louisiana.

Eddie speaks of The Great Depression, how the banks closed and people lost all the money they had. The stress was so bad many of them had heart attacks and died. When Eddie saw a breadline of over 200 starving men, he felt the depression was there to stay for a while.

Edward Robb Ellis’s wrote about large events of the days, and he wrote about his feelings and personal experiences, as well. To me that is a combination of a diary and journal. It is sometimes difficult to draw a line of separation between the two. We don’t need to do that if we want to combine them.

David in the Bible did the same thing. He wrote about events, he poured out his anguish, and then he prayed for help. It seems God answered the prayers as he was writing because often in the same Psalm where he’s asking for help he soon begins thanking God for His deliverance.

I write in a diary or journal almost every day. It never fails to lift my spirits. Only God can do that, of course, but writing is my best way to hear Him. Eddie said that writing a diary keeps him straight and honest with himself. I agree.

This week I’ve written about going to a sales party and seeing friends I haven’t seen for awhile. It was a joyous time. I’ve written about Bill and I having lunch with our son and walking around Lake Eola in Orlando. The swans are all in love. The turtles are swimming together. A beautiful black man in a hot pink tee shirt was walking entwined with his ladylove who looked like an exotic Indian dancer. The next day I had lunch with our daughter and we talked in mother daughter shorthand. I wrote all about that.

Today I had no appointments, but I got up grouchy. Thank the Lord there’s a way not to ruin my own day. First, I wrote about the dog next door. If he’s outside, he barks at us every time we open the door. I wrote about my headache. I even wrote about how Bill keeps washing the dishes and putting them in the drainer instead of rinsing them off and putting them in the dishwasher so I can accumulate a full load. I know, they are frivolous, silly complaints, but when I got through telling the God who loves me and who already knows everything about me, I felt relieved of a burden. I was ready to write His love pats. The process reminds me a little of David’s, but of course no one is trying to kill me, as they were him. The great thing is that God loves little old me as much as He did David and so he makes no difference in the help we need or deserve.

“Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar.” Psalm 5:1-2

High Hopes

Last week I started two new projects. One is a new novel, called, Roxy, and the other is my spring 2014 herb garden. I’ve really changed my approach to doing things. At one time, I read everything I could get on a subject and talked to people about how they did things. I tried to follow steps and instructions as closely as possible. I was anxious and uptight about how things were going to turn out and I often became stressed over them. I also felt as if someone else cared how I did it and was looking on judgmentally. That didn’t help at all.

It’s a good thing for us to have some idea what we’re doing, to read, do research, and take lessons, but at some point, we just have to launch out and see what works for us. What I’m doing now is an amalgamation of everything I ever read, thought, knew, and felt.

Last Monday I got out some notes I’d made by hand on Roxy and started putting the story on my computer. I used Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s Book in a Month, Raymond Obstfeld’s, Fiction First Aid, and Leigh Michaels’s, On Writing Romance, for prompts and inspirations, but I read only until I lost interest and then went on to something else. Also, I’m pacing myself, and it’s making my writing entertaining to me. I’m putting TLC into my characters and I can hardly wait to see what they do next. I’m taking care to see that each chapter is in decent shape before going on to the next one. The most important thing, the one that makes the difference is, I’m staying connected with my intuition. To me, that’s the same thing as being in touch with the Holy Spirit. The things He does when I attend Him are wonderful.

As for the herbs, Bill and I had strong new wood built into three raised beds for our plants. The beds have been ready for a month, they started calling to us last week and we went shopping for the plants. We bought six plants, all different. They are:

Basil
Tarragon
Thyme
Rosemary
Oregano
Marjoram

We read the directions and we planted them right, but with our own feelings for them, you might say loving each one and wishing it well. We plan to use them on the spot as well as to harvest and freeze-dry them at their peak. They make everything taste so much better, even when we follow our hearts in knowing what dishes to put them in.

On the way out of the store, a song played in my head…“High hopes, we have high hopes, high in the sky, apple pie hopes.” Yes. Hope is one of the most important things in the world, and we need to allow our Lord to set up things in our lives for us to hope for and to work toward. We need big things and small, spiritual and material to occupy our minds and give us the opportunity to be co-creators with our great and mighty God.

#hope #herbgardening #writing #mondayblogs

Jargon, We All Use It

I’m saved? Are you?

What does that mean? A whole raft of people could tell you, but many more could not. Why? Because I’m saved, is jargon. So what is jargon? It’s a code, a language. It’s quick, it’s easy, and everybody in our circle knows what we’re talking about. That’s fine as long as we don’t mind excluding people who aren’t in the know.

What’s up? Are you working hard? How do you like this weather? Those are okay to start a conversation at the beginning of a chance meeting when there’s not much chance of having a real talk, but specific questions and answers are more

. Here’s a couple of examples: “I remember that the last time we talked you were working on a great project. What stage are you in now? For a traveler, you can’t do better than, “When is your next trip and where are you going?” If we’re creative, we’ll hear much better stories, and possibly be inspired with something exciting to write about.

What lines of jargon are we familiar with? We know religious jargon, and writing jargon. Then we have our music specialties and historical references, maybe you speak politics or sports or entertainment or cooking. It might be fun to watch our own statements and ferret out things that others will not understand. I don’t know texting, computer, or game jargon, so I’m not the best at communicating with young people and some of the things I say such as, “You’ve got the cart before the horse,” are incomprehensible and weird to them. They are not only jargon, but they are clichéd, and archaic. I hope to root them out of my vocabulary, someday, but until then perhaps I can be more careful about when and where I use them.

Have you ever been to a doctor that told you precisely what you wanted to know in words that you could easily understand? If you have, you’ve been to a good doctor, who knows how to communicate without using medical jargon. He is especially valuable if he doesn’t take a superior attitude and judge you for not knowing.

So what do I mean when I say, I’m saved? Here’s a short explanation. It means that Jesus died on the cross for me because I was too busy ignoring Him and His Father to bother connecting with them. He had to get my attention. He got it in an act of atonement that will never be forgotten. Then he rose powerfully from death, and now because I asked Him to take over my life I’m being healed and living a freer and more abundant life than I could ever have imagined. Because he cast his cloak of righteousness over me, and He is no longer aware of my self-life, Jesus looks upon me as holy and perfect. Maybe I should just say, I’m saved, but what good would that do? What’s the point of saying anything at all if people can’t understand what I’m talking about? If I’m a Christian, I’m a teacher. If I’m a writer, I’m a teacher. Teachers must, by definition, be able to truly communicate.

#writingtips #faith #communication #writingideas

A Need to Support My Writing Habit

When I started writing, I thought I’d to make some money, but that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe I have the wrong attitude. Maybe I don’t care enough about money. No, really, I love to live comfortably, have plenty to eat, a decent car to drive, go shopping now and then. I do like finding pretty, unusual clothes at thrift shops. Still as long as my basic needs are overmet, I don’t get too concerned about making a lot of money as such.

But I have to write. I could stay in my journals, and I would if I had no other outlet, but I do like communicating with all of you—very much. I love writing novels, too. I heard an Indie writer speak one time who had distributed 40,000 of his novels. I didn’t say sold. I don’t know the stats on that, but I do know by now that a person has to work pretty hard to get rid of that many novels, no matter how bad or how good he is. Even the big writers work hard at publicity and marketing. In order to sell books, you have to become known. Sometimes being known can cost money as well as time, energy and effort.

I pay an editor to edit and format my books. I believe most Indie writers do. It doesn’t cost me too, too much to keep ahead, but it does mean I need to make up my mind there will be expenses. And sometimes I wonder whether I’m worth it, or whether I’m really called or whether I’m wasting time and money and putting on airs. But I can’t quit now.

I did try to quit several times. I gave it all up to the Lord, (all except the journaling, and oh, yes, well, poems always came, and I wrote emails and before that nice satisfying letters to send in envelopes, and come to think of it, there were those editing jobs, and the newsletters…but I didn’t consider any of that being published).

Three of the most satisfying things I wrote never made any money at all. One was a poem for a young woman who wanted to send it to a boy she liked, one was an employee who wanted to send a letter to his boss about being suspended from his job, but who lacked confidence in his English. After I wrote the letter, he went back to work. I’m not saying it was because of me, but still, it was good to be part of a successful scribe story. The third was a letter to a judge. We have a couple at church who takes care of a brother and sister who are the man’s cousins. Their parents have been incarcerated for most of their lives. When the mom was released from jail many years later, she took our friends to court to get custody of her children. The friend at church asked if I could write a letter saying he was doing a good job, and it didn’t seem wise to make that change. The kids got to stay.

I’m going to keep on writing as long as I can. Someday I may get a big surprise and turn into a millionaire from it, but possibly not. As long as I feel I’m where I’m supposed to be in my writing I will spend what is necessary to spend. I’ve always felt that we are all teachers. I think God wants us to teach the good news in various ways—the more politely and entertainingly, the better.

I’ve talked to writer friends. One’s supports her writing habit as a court translator. Another works full time at a job she doesn’t like and writes on holidays and vacations. Someone else does editing for pay and, in order to keep her habit going, writes books for publications such as Facts on File, even though her first love is poetry and she’s an imaginative and wonderful writer.

How about you? How do you support your habit? If we’re called to write, and I believe we are, our Holy Spirit will bless us and show us favor. He will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory. After all, maybe it’s not just a pastime or a habit, maybe sometimes it will help people to find the loving Father they’ve been looking for, and that’s when it become something more than our need or a habit, it becomes putting our hands into the hand of God and following where he leads and where he supplies.