I love a good mess. Over the past week, two handymen have been working on our house, replacing rotted siding and a handful of windows. They have touched almost every room in our house for one reason or another and tend to leave funny little bits behind. As I’m writing this at my bedroom desk, I can see a small plastic package of unopened screws left on my desk. If I walk into my bathroom, I find a new package of long brass wood screws. If I toodle over to my husband’s office, I can see a red-handled wood chisel sitting high up on an upper window sill. Every room has something left behind, or, if I look at it in another way, a tool or supply for equipping us in our repairs. Perhaps it’s more than home repairs because repairs make me think of one book I’ve slowly ingested this summer--Madeline L’Engle’s Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (1980). You see, in the writing game, I fight discouragement regularly. I fight doubt, purpose, all those things. L’Engle does not deny the negatives and speaks candidly about her “decade of failure” where doubt and guilt consumed her with “bitter lessons” in her writing journey. Her compilation of thoughts on the process of writing amid reflections on her spiritual life has become a nourishing devotional to me in the summer season. We think because we have words, not the other way around. The more words we have, the better able we are to think conceptually." L’Engle consciously turns her focus to how God works through us. “But we also need to be reminded in this do-it-yourself age that it is indeed God who made us, and not we ourselves. We are human and humble and of the earth, and we cannot create until we acknowledge our createdness.” She explores many tangents along the way but always returns to “An artist is a nourisher and a creator who knows that during the act of creation there is collaboration. We do not create alone.” I’ve copied many of these quotes in my writing journal this summer, writing them down over and over. It’s like the life of L’Engle’s words have become my cheerleader, bringing me back to center. When I am constantly running there is no time for being. When there is no time for being there is no time for listening.” And I do want to listen as I read and write. I don't want writing to become my busyness.
To repair is to mend and put back in order. But its Latin root parare means to make ready, to prepare. I trust that I am “making ready” again, preparing for the life where my words fit in the homes God has for them.
4 Comments
Annette
8/1/2021 04:43:34 pm
This article is so timely. Thank you for the resources in the quotes by Madeline. Personally, I’m going through a huge repair mode so that creativity is Welcomed home and allowed to occupy my space. I had forgotten the importance of even listening and collaborating with the Creator. He is our maker not we are selves, that line from Psalm 100 has been a resonating frequency for me since my early 20s. Thank you for this nice reset Of being listening.
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Christine L Norvell
8/1/2021 04:54:07 pm
You're welcome, Annette. L'Engle's years of experience flow with wisdom through her chapters. It really is a devotional, one that helps us return to the simplicity of creating.
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Thanks for this post, and especially this quote: “An artist is a nourisher and a creator who knows that during the act of creation there is collaboration. We do not create alone.” I haven't read L'Engle in awhile, and you have reminded me why I need her wisdom.
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Christine
8/13/2021 04:27:09 pm
You're most welcome, Julie. L'Engle is able to speak of such deep things in a simple way. I love how she reminds us that it is God working through us first.
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