Fear and Hairbrained Ideas

17
May

Some things are bigger than ourselves. There are forces at work we are not able to see.

Conditions begin to align, phone calls come seemingly out of nowhere, chance meetings occur in random locations.

The dots, which have always been present, are finally connected and the complete picture comes into focus, the picture they’ve been making all along.

The timing is right, the tumblers click into place and it is clear that the idea should move forward. It does so almost under its own momentum.

In those times, we have a choice. Will we continue to mention the idea when the conversation opens the opportunity? Or will we ignore the opening, ignore the possibility? Will we make that phone call and allow the person on the other end to make his own decision, or will we make the decision for him without him even knowing?

Mentioning, calling, speaking up — these are scary things. Our hearts race, our body temperatures rise just considering the act.

But I think this is more than just being scared. It’s a deeper fear than that. It isn’t focused so much on the action but on the actor.

It’s about us. It’s about me.

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Instagram: tclmn

Getting Caught Up in the Fear

We can keep our fear at arm’s length if we stay focused on the action we’re considering, rather than the why behind the feeling of fear. If we stay focused on the foreground of the picture, the action of taking that step or initiating that process can receive our energy and attention. If we re-focus, however, the thing that shows up in the picture is not the action; it’s the identity and the fear of being found lacking. Many times the nerves about a specific action stem from an internal fear about ourselves. We’re in an argument with ourselves.

The argument goes something like this:

1. I’ve got this great idea.

2. I’ve run this idea past some trusted people in my life, and they think it is more than just a passing whim.

3. I know some next steps that could make this idea a reality, or at least take it from just being in my head to being out in the world.

4. When I think about this idea, nothing in my spirit gives me reason for concern. If anything, when I consider what God would think about the idea, I feel like He would give it His endorsement.

5. Doing something with the idea is intimidating. It is a new thing, something that requires me to take action in a new way.

6. The questions of “what if” start to rise. What will happen if the idea is met with resistance?

7. The questions of my own value and qualifications start to rise: who do I think I am to pursue this idea?

8. Those questions continue to gain silent momentum, camouflaging themselves as weak spots in the plan to move forward/ They often appear as hindrances to the success of the idea.

9. If left unattended, these doubts and insecurities will undermine any further steps. The idea will fall away and become one more hairbrained scheme I came up with, one more plan that didn’t work out. This will only serve to fuel the questions of value and qualification the next time an idea presents itself. The cycle will repeat.

We quell the momentum, kick ashes on the embers and let fear keep us from adventure. We don’t allow God to fill in the holes where we can’t do it ourselves. We exclude ourselves before we even get started. It’s one thing to be smart and press a plan to find any weak spots in it, and not all ideas are good ones. However, it is another to let our inner doubts keep us from undertaking anything with an unknown outcome.

Where Do You Need to Step Out?

I’m going to share some specifics but insert your own situations, dreams, goals, etc. in place of mine, okay?

There are two possibilities on the horizon for me, particularly as my husband and I consider what things are going to look like this fall, when all three of our kids will be in school the whole day. One possibility is a longer-shot in my mind, and involves selling certain one-of-a-kind items online. The other possibility, which is closer to my heart, involves helping others discover a different form of prayer that centers on visual expression.

In both of these, there are strong indicators that I’m not just talking myself into the idea. Outside sources have provided good feedback and doing these activities brings me joy.

But I’m scared.

These are new endeavors, and I can’t present myself as an expert in any way. But at the same time, they have been so naturally developed, and come as such an outflowing of my interests and experiences up to this point, I feel like they draw on my eclectic interests and background. That makes me the right person to pursue them.

But I’m scared.

I don’t want to give anyone false impressions about my qualifications, my training or degrees. I don’t want to have the impression about myself that the things I would sell look awesome and are meaningful, only to find they look juvenile or wholly amateur to the skilled professional. I am afraid I’ll invest time and energy and nothing will come of it, thus feeding my reputation (even if its only in my mind…but I’m pretty sure it’s public) of pursuing crazy ideas only to have them fall apart.

See what I mean? Ultimately, it’s not even about the activity, it’s about what the activity says about ME.

Does this sound at all familiar?

Send Up Tiny Flames

Did you ever see that creepy part of the Lord of the Rings movies where they’re crossing that terrible bog? There had been a huge battle long ago, and the bodies of the dead were still intact, just under the surface of the water. Sometimes little flames would appear on the top of the water. If any unfortunate travelers followed these lights, they’d go the wrong direction.

Let’s take that creepiness, flip it into its opposite, and use it for our own purposes.

Let’s see a peaceful day, warm breezes, no mosquitos, the sun shining gently on our backs. Each person gets their own expansive, healthy marsh, teeming with life and energy.

Let’s see all our gifting and interests as beautiful rock formations under the water, gleaming and precious. Any one of these would be a gift in itself, and their minerals enrich the quality of the entire water system. These rocks slowly change shape over time, much like a stalagmite (or is it stalactite?) would do.

Occasionally a small flame appears on the surface of the water. The flames indicate a healthy environment and a path that will bring the best views. We can follow these flames, and in doing so, discover the development of our gifts and interests, using them in new ways when they are at a proper stage. Along the way, we can bring a gem up out of the water before it’s fully formed, but if we wait, we fill find that gems which have been allowed to fully develop — these are the most beautiful and healthy. The small flames show us which way to go as we enjoy our walk through the picturesque summer wetland.

What passions of yours are sending up little flames for you right now? What direction are the tiny lights guiding you?

http://mrg.bz/BBh66i

Fight through the Fear

We can ignore the indicators in our lives, of course, and get along fine. However, I think we are at our most fulfilled when we heed our passions and interests, even when they shift. We are not statues — we change and develop over time, even in adulthood. What worked for us ten years ago may not work for us now. That’s not a sign of weakness or flightiness; that’s growth. Even if we take incremental steps, working smart and being conscientious, we can still be attentive to that internal appetite that desires fulfillment through using our own uniqueness.

So take that risk. Be bold. Be brave. You can do it. And when you do, you’ll have more ammunition against fear the next time around.

I can’t wait to hear about the ways you’re fighting through the fear. What risks are you taking lately? In what areas are you growing and how? Inspire the rest of us with your bravery!

A New Type of Mischief, Part 3

28
Apr

In this final installment, I’d like to level with you, dear readers.

I want this to be a space where we can talk about difficult things, but at the same time I don’t want people knowing everything about me. I want us to be able to share openly, but I don’t want to share TOO openly.

This blog is not some kind of diary or journal. That kind of blog works for some people, and I say more power to them.

But that’s not me.

You don’t need to hear all my inner thoughts (believe me, you really don’t) and I don’t need to vent all my issues here. You don’t need to know what I look like when I first wake up or the fact that I don’t wash my jeans after wearing them once.

However…

I also want you to know that I’ve been keeping things from you. I’ve shied away from writing as much, not knowing quite how to stretch out our small talk, not wanting to overwhelm you with gloom or all the mixed up feelings I’ve got about the church (amongst other things) right now. If you look at the overall arch of my personality and tendencies, I’m a pretty upbeat person who tries to look for the positive even in rough situations. Getting bogged down in negativity just isn’t my style. Because it isn’t my style, and in the spirit of “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” I’ve found that words are not my easiest medium right now.

Even working on the fiction projects I love — those have been more energy draining than life-giving right now. You might already know I’ve been working on revising a novel I wrote about a year ago. In the fall I started writing a new novel, but when we discovered my dad’s diagnosis, any energy I might have had to put towards that project fizzled out. I’ve tried to pick up these stories, put in some time moving them forward, but mostly they’ve sat quietly on the back burner.

Words escape me.

That’s where art journaling comes in.

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Instagram: tclmn

In our two previous installments, I fear that I’ve minimized the impact or significance of this art journaling discovery.

Today I hope to clarify that.

First of all, I want to state for the record that I don’t fancy myself a painter. I can’t draw realistic objects very well — they come out flat or with the perspective wrong so they’re either stretched out too long or super stubby…or both at once.

Secondly, I want you to know that it doesn’t matter if I’m not a painter. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a painter. Art journaling is for anybody.

Because I’m a word-nerd who is struggling to find energy to put towards those words, art journaling has become a great way to tap into the creative stream without relying on language to convey meaning.

It has been a great relief to still scratch that creative itch but in a different form, one where colors, textures, shapes, and layers give “voice” to a feeling behind an idea.

Thirdly (aren’t we organized today with our linear points?), art journaling allows me to engage in active prayer conversation.

What the heck is that?

To be honest, I don’t exactly know. I made it up, although I’m sure there are a gazillion others who have articulated it better and practiced it ahead of me (Ignatius might qualify as one school of thought on this). What I know is that I feel that many times as I put paint onto the page, I am communing with God in a way I haven’t been able to in a more formal way.

Because I don’t know what to pray.

Because I know the Spirit prays when I don’t have the words. (Romans 8:28)

Because I’m scared to pray because I want my own way and have no assurances that I will get it.

Because trying to put words to the ever shifting waves of my brain and heart sounds like a monumental task that I’m just not up to right now.

And so, art journaling has become a way for me to move in prayer, contemplation, wrestling, meditation, and spiritual discovery, all while using a different non-verbal part of my brain.

Those are all fancy ways of saying that when I open up my art journal and get to work, God shows up. I don’t know how, I don’t know why. I just know that it has become a form of spiritual connection when words aren’t working for me. Time passes quickly as I experiment with different types of paints and goo to see what will happen. And in the midst of experimenting, there is a joy in creating and discovery, a joy in cultivating the spiritual connection that I deeply desire but for which traditional forms are falling flat right now.

Thanks for listening. I just didn’t feel I had done it justice yet. Art journaling is more than just playing around with watercolors, or dabbling with a new hobby, although there is an element of play and an element of learning something new. My art journal is helping sustain me through a challenging time, and is actually enriching my spiritual walk.

I’m becoming convinced it can do the same for other people as well.

Do you have a non-traditional activity that feeds your soul in times of dryness? Would you share it here, along with how you discovered it? I’d love to hear from you.

A New Type of Mischief, Part 2

21
Apr

“Messy”

Do you remember when you found your “thing”?

Maybe it was swimming, or baseball, or playing the recorder, or making beaded necklaces.

Maybe it was swimming — you figured out the way to coordinate the kick and stroke combination and could hold your breath longer than anyone.

Maybe it was running — other people would be falling along the side of the road and you felt like you could keep going for another hour.

Baking, writing, dancing, hunting, reading, fishing — whatever it was, it grabbed your attention and you wanted to spend time and energy doing that thing.

When you find “that thing” a lot of times it means you stop trying out the other things. A person only has so many time in a day, and when you know that certain activity you enjoy, why waste time doing the other stuff?

Let this dedication to that hobby/sport/activity/game continue for a while and a curious phenomena occurs — you start to think you’re not able to do most of the other things…or you decide (not on purpose decide, but it just sort of happens) that you’re actively bad at those other things. When invited to participate, we decline, saying that we’re no good at _________ (fill in the blank), even if we’ve never even tried it.

For the longest time, it was like that for me with drawing.

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Feeling Small

This winter, I joined an online group of writers called The Story Sessions. (You can check out Story Sessions here) It’s been a good experience, and I continue to enjoy connecting with them. One of the things Story Sessions offered about a month ago was online workshops. The one I was immediately drawn to (no pun intended) was the Art Journaling as Spiritual Discipline. For the next 40 days — I’m in the final week now — we’d receive daily prompts and have a couple online chats all around Art Journaling.

I didn’t even know what Art Journaling was.

…maybe I still don’t….

but I know what it has become for me.

In the process of mucking about with paints each day, I’ve tapped into a different part of my heart. I realize that sounds corny, but it doesn’t capture it fully enough to just say it uses a different part of my brain, even though that’s true too. There’s a freedom in trying something with no expectations that you’ll be good at it, a freedom in just having fun with trying something new.

Click this to see Pheobe running like a happy madwoman

It’s been more than just trying out a new skill, such as you might develop if you attend a cooking class or computer coding seminar. It is something less based on outcome and more about the process of discovery.

My oldest son, after looking at some of the pictures in my notebook, assumed a tone I can only guess came from one of his teachers, and said to me, “And you said you’re not an artist.” I answered back, “Well, I can’t draw people very well.” To which he responded, “That’s only half of art. There’s abstract art too. You’re good at that.” He’s ten years old, y’all. We could all take some advice from him, and not count ourselves out before we’ve begun.

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I’ll have more to share about it but I don’t want to overwhelm y’all. I’d like to put up a few examples of things I’ve made so you can see what I’m talking about. Remember, I’m not here to say these are particularly lovely or that there’s intrinsically artistic quality to them. But they are examples of the process, and expressions of things I discovered when I let myself try.

Some of these are from prompts given to me through the workshop. Others are just things that came out of a thought or feeling.

Here’s one that is in process but I thought it was funny that I was dressed in the same colors I chose to paint with, but didn’t realize it until AFTER I was done:

Peaceful Blue Swirls

This one came out yesterday.

Out of the Tomb

I tried using a scraper to drag some leftover paint onto this next page. It sat like that for a few days, a prompt came along that seemed to fit the feeling of the page. Weird artsy-babble, huh? Yeah, I agree.

Mystery

These are just a few of the notebooks I’ve been working in. I’d love to continue this, and it really has become a form of spiritual discipline for me, a kind of shared activity with God that doesn’t have the traditional “sit with your hands folded” feeling to it. Even if it is just doodling on a scratch piece of paper (or taking a walk or just being outside), if you come to it with an open heart and your spiritual ears on, it can be an encounter with the Creator.

Do you have a spiritual discipline that works for you? Please feel free to share it here! And if you have any experience with art journaling, I’d love to hear about that too. Have a wonderful week!

A New Type of Mischief, Part 1

17
Apr

Sometimes I dabble. I’ve been known to dabble. I’m dabble-y, a dabbler. Even though some people find their one thing and stick with it for years on end, I have a smattering of interests that come and go. Sometimes they don’t come back, or they return with a renewed intensity. Maybe it has to do with the barometric pressure??? Here are some examples of things that ebb and flow in my year.

Scrapbooking

Don’t stop reading. I know scrapbooking is a deal breaker for some people, but stay with me, okay?

Scrapbooking is interesting to me, and I want to record the lives of my children and family. It’s just that in order for me to really make pages I like, I have to drag out a bunch of stuff which I then have to put away. That’s no fun. In addition, I don’t really work in an organized fashion, so I have to play around with stuff and discover what I want to put together. That makes me a slooooow scrapper. That means I pull out all that stuff, only produce two pages, and have to put it away. Or, as is more often the case, I have hopes of finishing a couple more pages tomorrow, so I leave out the gear…and it sits on the table, getting in the way of everything, for the next two weeks.

I am finding solutions in a couple different approaches to scrapbooking so it doesn’t require quite so much effort/work. More on those another time.

Gardening

I love to work in the garden. I love flowers and dirt under my fingernails. I do not love nettles, Creeping Charlie or allergies. I also do not love sweat in my eyeballs. And did I mention the weeds? Most times I start out strong, but fizzle out as the summer progresses and the humidity makes me drip just by throwing back my sheet in the morning. But the payoff of those flowers keeps me coming back.

Knitting

Maybe it was only implied above but I should mention my short attention span. I’m challenged by anything that requires more than a couple days of work or slow progress of any kind. There have to be a lot of built-in rewards and successes. You’ll never see me knit an entire sweater. You might see me finish one enormous mitten, but only one, since it would require too much work to fix the first one and plus, it is pointy like a stick and who wants to wear a pointy mitten anyway? (Can you tell I speak from experience?) It is also not nearly as much fun to knit in the summertime, so it is reserved for a winter activity.

Where’s Your Follow-through, Man — er, Woman?

Contrary to what you may think, I’m actually quite comfortable with my dabbling.

The few listed above are only a sampling of the things I’ve tried along the way (friendship bracelets, beaded safety-pins come to mind), and that’s okay.

These are all experiments with different types of creative expression.

Some of them are steps to build upon, some of them are ways to find out what things don’t work. It is easy to decide something is lame or outdated if you don’t have the context in which it was discovered or used. Each of these expressions have been tied to relationship in my life, often times a shared activity or an outgrowth from a friendship. Some of those friendships were tied to place, season of life, mutual interests or proximity. Those things changed over time, and that’s just part of the natural cycle of things.

Just because you try something, it doesn’t mean you have to go all-in, and it doesn’t mean you have to commit to that one thing with all your spare time for the rest of your life. I think pressure like that keeps people from trying new things.

Let’s talk about tennis. What if you wanted to try your hand at it? (I pick tennis but you could insert almost anything for this illustration.) Fun sport, you can play it with more than just one other person, good exercise, nice to be outside OR inside. What if you could only pick up a tennis racket if you were committed to the grueling training and match schedule that would make you become a competitive tennis champion. It’s champion or nothing. You’d probably resign yourself to watching it on TV — who has the time, talent and finances to commit what it takes to become a champion?

It’s a silly idea, of course, but it’s almost as if we place that level of expectation on ourselves when it comes to trying new things. We rule ourselves out because we think in order for it to be “worth it” we have to be as “good at it” as a professional or make that level of commitment. We limit ourselves before we even try.

Come Back on Monday

I’ve discovered a new kind of mischief that taps into a couple of my interests, and I think it has staying power. It combines my spiritual walk (or wrestling match, as the case may be), my love of words, and a chance to use images/color to convey ideas or emotions. It’s called art journaling — have you heard of it? I hadn’t, but I’ve stumbled into this whole other world of expression. I don’t claim to be any kind of expert, but I’m having fun and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Here’s why I think you’ll like it:

You can’t do it wrong
If you try something and you don’t like it, you can keep going and transform it
Because you can’t do it wrong, you can release your perfectionist expectations
It taps into creative parts you didn’t know you had
You can discover an unconventional way of “doing devotions” or spending time investing in your spiritual side (if you choose to focus on that while working on your art journal)
It’s stinkin’ fun

Did I Mention Come Back on Monday?

I wish I knew how to do fancy giveaways, because this blog could probably use some. Since I don’t know how, I think I’ll make my own rules about it. If you come back on Monday, you’ll get a chance to see a few samples of this new mischief, art journaling, and I’ll give away some “equipment” (which may be just a bottle of acrylic paint…but maybe something more!). I’ll hope to see you early next week!

In the meantime, I’d love to hear about fun activities you enjoy. Do you play a sport or make time to work on certain projects? Have you heard of art journaling or have any experience with it? Tell me everything! When you have some free time (“free” meaning you don’t have to be responsible and use it picking up groceries or running errands), how do you spend it?

Maybe we’re all undiscovered artists

11
Apr

If you ask me if I can paint, I’ll tell you no.

But it isn’t true.

Ask me if I’m an artist, I’ll shake my head.

But it isn’t true.

I see pictures in my mind, my eyes a camera to freeze the slant of light coming through my window, the odd placement of a torn shirt in treetop, the wind blowing through a cornfield, my daughter in a crazy self-picked outfit flying down the road on her bike.

My words describe these pictures in the stories I write, wrestle down that one feeling and pin it to the mat. Even in my conversations, the right word is important, and sometimes only a word-picture will convey the idea in my head.

YOU are an artist, you with your art classes, composition knowledge, knowing how to use and pronounce “gesso” (or even just knowing what it IS). I can’t be an artist. How presumptuous of me to even think I could be, in any medium, in any form.

Wait, though.

What if…?

If we strip away the mystery, the intimidation, the pressure to make something that looks like something else, the ideal of perfection, the definition of it being someone with one ear wearing a beret, we are all artists.

We’re just too fearful to pick up a brush.

Do you consider yourself an artist in any form of the word? Don’t dismiss this idea – sit with it for a minute. Many different things can be a form of art…you might be an artist and not even realize it.

This is a linkup with Lisa-jo Baker (http://lisajobaker.com) and Five Minute Friday. Check it out and you’ll see all sorts of different posts. These short posts on Fridays are a fun habit I’ve gotten into.

Not All Gloom and Doom

2
Apr

I come from a long line of jokesters. Not so much on my dad’s side, but my mom’s side of the family is thick with smart alecks, tricksters, goofballs and what Grandma used to call “turkeys”.

When I was probably ten or so, I was in my room and my mom called to me in a frightened voice from the bathroom. She said there was a squirrel in there and I should bring her something from my room so she could defend herself.

I didn’t bite.

First off, there was no way I was going anywhere near the bathroom if there was a squirrel in there.

Second, she’d messed me with one too many times, so now any claim of something unusual was suspicious.

She used to pop out at us from behind doorways. She’d short-sheet our beds. I’m not sure but I think she swapped out the sugar in the sugar dish (which we rarely got to use so it added to the impact of the joke) with salt.

Beyond pranks, though, my mom is known for being FUNNY. Funny with an edge sometimes, but funny.

Because of all this, poor Mom was left to handle the fake squirrel on her own, and she had to admit defeat when she came into my room and admitted there was no squirrel. You might think this was the end of her pranks on me, but all this really did was up the ante on the jokes she used in the future, taking the whole thing up a level.

*end backstory*

All of this to say, I recognize that it was gotten pretty heavy around here, and I don’t want you thinking that it’s all gloom and doom all the time. Because it was April Fool’s Day yesterday, I thought I’d list for you the pranks my family pulled. I can’t (and won’t – some of these are so lame I don’t want them to soil my good reputation) take credit for all of these; my kids got really into pranks this year around. *sigh* They’ll learn some good ones eventually.

Here we go:

Spray water on someone’s bed.
Put the toothpaste cap on really tight.
Fall down in the hallway.
Water down someone’s coffee (or try to and get caught in the attempt).
Fall down in the kitchen.
Put on a silly dress and funny hat and tromp through the house.
Fall down in the bedroom.
Tell everyone there’s a deer at the front door.
Put a turkey decoy in the front yard and tell everyone there’s something in the front yard they have to see.
Slip a book into someone’s pillowcase.
Balance a wad of play dough on the top edge of a door that’s partially open. Get people to open the door so it falls on them.
Ding dong ditch (or as the case may be, knock knock ditch) your family, the more doors and the more times, the better.

A Bigger Trick

This was something I did to a group of friends probably five years ago, and since it had been long enough, I thought it was safe to use again but just on my family. It’s the old trick-’em-into-eating-something prank, but unless you don’t like bananas, it isn’t a gross trick.

First, take some graham crackers and crush them into crumbs (using a plastic baggie works best). Set aside.

Slice a banana into segments and then slice those down the middle.

Next. cover the banana segments in peanut butter. Getting the peanut butter to stick on the slippery side of the banana can be hard, but sometimes you have to commit if you want a prank to work.

You will now put the peanut butter covered banana mess into the plastic baggie that holds your graham cracker crumbs. Shake it around to cover the banana. You may have to press the graham crackers in so they stick and form a nice, believable coating.

And so now once you get enough of these put together, you’ve got a pan full of fake chicken nuggets. We don’t eat nuggets much at our house, so they are a treat (eww — why???). I had some real nuggets in the oven, so I told the kids these were homemade but I hadn’t had enough chicken so I had to supplement with store-bought nuggets. As he was coming to the table my oldest son, “Rex”, said that I should make those bananas with the peanut butter and graham crackers sometime. Mwahahahaha.

They don’t look exactly like chicken nuggets, but when you pretend the pan is hot, use a spatula to serve them onto the kids’ plates, and they smell real nuggets cooking in the oven, it makes it more convincing. You may have to sell it a little, but that’s part of pranking someone and being committed to your craft. Here’s the end result:

Lest you think no joke is off limits, I do set parameters around what can be used as a joke. Here’s what I tell the kids:

It can’t hurt anyone.
It can’t ruin anything.
It shouldn’t make the person embarrassed or feel bad.

These guidelines will change as they get older (or maybe not), but at this stage they need some guidance about how to pull a prank without humiliating someone or destroying our house.

Overall, it was a fun day without too many obnoxious moments…but we did have to put the kibosh on jokes after supper so we could get our homework done. And so far this morning, my coffee has tasted just fine.

Did you make it through April Fool’s Day without any serious mishaps? Do you have any good pranks you’d like to share?

Not Just a Pretty Face

18
Feb

There are times when a blog looks nice but has little to say.

It is easy to navigate but when you see the content that’s offered, there’s not much to keep you interested.

Some sites have content that’s combative, argumentative, created to stir up strife and visceral reactions, many times with the purpose of driving traffic to the site, if only for the chance to spout off about how the author is nuts.

I’ve visited sites where I wanted to read the content but the visual layout or intense colors made my eyeballs burn and I actually said something to the point of: “You’ve got good things to say but I can’t read this.”

I find myself with elements of all these dilemmas as I launch this new site.

Will I have anything to say?
Will you, dear reader, resonate with the words I write?
Do I adopt a reactionary stance and give myself an ulcer from dealing with all the negative stuff out there?

The goal of this site is to be more than just a pretty face, even though I do have to say that I like the way it turned out don’t you?

What You’ll Find Here

While I know it is standard practice to “find your niche” and zero in on one certain area of expertise, I find that I’m a dabbler and have written about many different things. In trying to narrow it down, I’ve found a few themes in the past four+ years of blogging.

Tone

First and foremost, I desire that this be a safe, encouraging place. That doesn’t mean we won’t address difficult, sometimes painful topics. We can do so, however, with respect and an appreciation for the nuances of life. Over time I have come to realize that just about everybody is doing the best they can with what they’ve got, and if we can approach one another with a posture of honesty and trust, our conversations will be much more productive. Let’s treat each other with an extra measure of grace.

~~Now shut up and bring me that cookie dough.~~ Can we all agree to that?

(Just teasin’ about that ^^^, but if you have cookie dough to share, I’ll bring my own spoon.)

Stories

As a blogger, writer and aspiring novelist, I walk all day around collecting stories. It is hard to unsee the stories once you’ve noticed them, and so they are now everywhere. It’s a little bit maddening, but in a good way. Writing is a way I order my thoughts and when I find a helpful tool or a way to further develop as a writer, I like to pass it along. The practical side will be a small portion here, and primarily you’ll see the curtain at the front of the house, and not the backstage workings.

I’d also like to support other writers, so when I find that I have the opportunity to spread the word about their work, I plan to do so. That may come in the form of book reviews, but also helping host book launches and guest writers, and events from other bloggers. There is room at this writing table for all of us.

Mischief

As we get to know one another, you’ll discover that I like making a good memory almost as much as I like a good story. Some mischief here, some silliness there — there’s almost always a reason to laugh a little, even in the most mundane, uneventful day. I hope you’ll find this site has a good sense of humor.

Spirituality

In almost every corner of our lives, I believe we can find traces of God, whispers and shiny stones He leaves to lead us back to Himself. Or Herself. …Either way, my relationship with Jesus and desire to better reflect his character and priorities is something as intrinsic to me as breathing.

In this area of spirituality, I have observations about the Big C “Church” and theology, especially as it pertains to evangelicalism and women. There are a lot of things we could be doing a whole.lot.better. I recognize that I can be a part of the solution.

Family/Parenting/Woman-ness

I’m a wife and a mom. These roles/relationships inform my perspective and are ever-present as I approach the world. I am not a perfect wife or mom (or person) but I really do try, even when it may seem like I’m in over my head (but if we’re honest, aren’t we ALL in over our heads when it comes to this stuff?). I’m a work-in-progress so I learn a lot from the mistakes I make and the interactions I have with my kids and family.

I can’t escape the way being a woman affects my perspective, nor do I wish to escape it. We are an amazing and dynamic group, full of power, tenderness, creativity, intelligence and resources. There are times when events impact women in very specific ways. I would like this to be a place that discusses womanhood and the issues that effect us.

Your Role

You play an important role here. I have room for guest writers, as I mentioned, if that’s your thing. I love to interact with your reactions to posts, your thoughts an insights to questions I’ve raised. I truly believe we’re better when we help one another, and because of that, the more people we bring here to get involved, the better off we all will be. Shares, likes, retweets, pins, and all other forms of support, including notes delivered via carrier pigeon, are deeply appreciated.

Thank you for joining me here. Even though we may not know each other (yet), I hope in some small way, this blog can help to make your day a little brighter.

Here and I’ve done all the talking. Would you care to say hello? Introduce yourself? Please do so in the comments — I’d love to meet you.

TC Larson

Stories and Mischief