I'm home.
Inspired. Wiser. Grateful.
Workshop leader, Violet Nesdoly, gave practical tools for getting ideas and getting started on writing poetry. Something to take me beyond just writing because I have to get it out of my head and on paper so I can go to sleep at night. Yes, far beyond that. I already have a list of more than a dozen ideas for poems, and that was only from one exercise. Paul Hawryluk helped out with a workshop on creative non-fiction. I have three possible beginnings for a short story.
Inspired. Wiser. Grateful.
Workshop leader, Violet Nesdoly, gave practical tools for getting ideas and getting started on writing poetry. Something to take me beyond just writing because I have to get it out of my head and on paper so I can go to sleep at night. Yes, far beyond that. I already have a list of more than a dozen ideas for poems, and that was only from one exercise. Paul Hawryluk helped out with a workshop on creative non-fiction. I have three possible beginnings for a short story.
Keynote speaker, Angela Hunt, and I were more similar than I would have expected. Born only one day apart, we both majored in music and struggle with our weight. We love words and we love God. Everything she said resonated with me. As she spoke, I alternately nodded, cried, laughed and was rendered speechless. Only significant difference beteen us is the 100+ books she's had published.
I have a transcript of her closing talk. I will perhaps share some of it with you after I've had some sleep.
What I do want to share is what God used to wreck me during one of the reading workshops. Everyone was invited to read an item of their work. Vicky Clarke read an excerpt from chapter two of her 2005 historical fiction novel The Other Judas ("an engaging intimate portrayal of the life of Jesus told by one of his lesser known disciples"1).
This is about the first meeting... do you remember yours?
What I do want to share is what God used to wreck me during one of the reading workshops. Everyone was invited to read an item of their work. Vicky Clarke read an excerpt from chapter two of her 2005 historical fiction novel The Other Judas ("an engaging intimate portrayal of the life of Jesus told by one of his lesser known disciples"1).
This is about the first meeting... do you remember yours?
And then Jesus looked at me. Our eyes met. His eyes bore into my soul. I knew he understood me beyond how I knew myself. He could see my failures and doubts, my missed opportunities and regretful moments. He could see it all and I was powerless to stop him.
Ashamed, yet unable to turn my face away, I stared back at him. His eyes were not full of disgust or contempt as I expected. While my heart bled black filth, his eyes drew me in, held me. I felt embraced by a holy love, safe.
All this with but a look!
Safe.
Embraced by a holy love.
I went to learn about writing and got ambushed by Jesus. That's a great place to be.
1 Heather Nickel, Your Nickel's Worth Publishing, Regina, SK
Picture "I Will Not Fail Thee" by Derek Hegsted
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