Every Friday, I spend five minutes or so writing on a word prompt from the Five Minute Friday community. Then, I hit publish. Good for the writing muscles and for cultivating a playful approach to the writing work that can sometimes be taken oh-so-seriously.
seventeen-year-old selves find
space
to dance with all the dreams inside
on the uneven concrete sidewalks
grow older and stillness and
quiet and unsocial safety
of forests and fields casts a different spell—
room to breathe and take apart
and now while quarantining in respective
places it seems neighbors would be nice
but one learns a long time ago: better to be lonely
alone
than in a crowded place of in-a-hurry people
Loneliness is a real struggle in our modern world.
Book clubs can be a place to combat that as, for just a few weeks, we all read the same pages and bare our thoughts—maybe a few inches of soul—in thoughtful and kind discussion.
I’m hosting a book club this fall for Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture by Mandy Smith. This book invites curious Jesus people to engage with faith through rest, creativity, questions, and playfulness.
Don’t wait—registration closes Sunday at midnight. See all the details and sign up here:
I get lonely in a crowd,
all those blank and foreign faces
talking, all, so very loud
to make me long for desert places
in which the whisper of the wind
is language of the Great Divine
that tells me that though I have sinned,
I am His, and I’ll be fine.
Away now from the city’s heat
I feel another kind of warmth
that bakes from stone beneath my feet,
a harbinger of Second Birth,
and only God will fain intrude
in my blessed solitude.
all. the. applause!!!!
Always a pleasure to read you.
Thank you, Susan. Your presence is kindness, and I appreciate it!
You speak to my heart with your words, “than in a crowded place of in-a hurry people.” Oh my, I have felt that quite often! I find a quiet space among this writing community. Thank you once again. (Karen, FMF #5)
Writing community is such a gift. <3 It's so precious to be understood by others doing similar work.