Six Word Memoirs.

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Memoir, Writing

Can you write your life story? Can you write your life story in six words? Half your life, or even a decade? More reasonably: a year, a week, or a month?  What about a single day in your life? Is it possible to encapsulate in six words the physical, psychological, physiological, emotional, events that occur even in one day? This is the challenge of the six word memoir.

This month’s six word memoir: Longing, but lethargic. Must go on.

This week’s six word memoir: So flies the time of progress.

Today’s six word memoir: Body and soul, refreshed and recharged.

Bucket List of Books

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Agatha Christie, Books, Jay Asher, John Green, Mark Haddon, Reading, Stephen Chbosky

I love to read and I love to know what others are reading. Following is a list of books –compiled by a variety of people and updated as it grows– that I hope to commit time to in the upcoming months. Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts? Have you got any recommendations for me? I’d love to hear about the books that are significant to you and see if maybe they’re a match for me, too.

Starting with a few books from Georget…

1: Perks of Being A Wallflower Stephen Chbosky

2: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

3: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

4: The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Nighttime by Mark Haddon

5: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Undulate.

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Word

I love things that happen on, around, or because of my birthday. Not because I love getting older (quite the contrary, actually) but because of the fact that it gives me a reason to look up fun facts or pieces of useless knowledge, or…. words of the day! I used to just look up the word of the day on dictionary.com for my birthday, but now I look it up much more frequent than that. I decided the word of the day was boring (hematic: “pertaining to blood.” really?! blood makes me faint! lame word choice, D.com!) so I went back into the archives for all the words of the day for April and looked through those for today’s inspiration.

In April 29th, 2000, the word of the day was undulate. (Much better than hematic!) Undulate: “to move in, or have, waves; to vibrate; to wave; as, undulating air.” Haven’t heard this one yet! I left the word of the day idea alone for most of the day as Matt and I worked. A few of the day’s events led me to think about the fluidity of life. Many plans I have made in life have changed in ways that I never could have imagined, and that is okay. I am not where I imagined I would be in high school, but I wouldn’t change a single event that brought me to where I am. And I would not go back. The people I know have changed and are not who I knew them to be, and it is okay. I have grown and changed just as they have. We now have new things to offer each other in our friendships. The places I have visited in the past have a different feel to them now as I visit them, and that is okay. I now have new memories for each place. I didn’t used to like change. I used to want everything to stay the same, and always know the consistency of routine. But that never really brought me challenge or real growth. Once I opened my mind to the idea of change being a good thing, I found many new opportunities.  I found my life moving in an ever-changing, fluid motion.

There have been many things that have come and gone in life; some cycle back in and some never return. I see life, my life, as a constantly undulating motion. The cycles of change are never the same, but they are constant. They come and go in a comforting rhythm that I’ve grown to appreciate and rely on, and the consistency of their presence offers a sort of companionship. The waves of change are now welcome; they are encouraged. Part of what makes the undulation of life so promising is the presence of Christ in my life. I know that no matter how much change I experience, I will never escape the hands of Christ. My insecurity and dislike for change in the past were the result of a lack of relationship with Christ. As a single significant change brought me closer in my understanding of the sacrifice Christ made for me, leading to my genuine desire for salvation through Christ’s grace, my heart was opened and excited by the prospect of change because I knew that I would always have Christ as my foundation. With a foundation as solid as the one I know now, change can do nothing but offer the chance to live my life to its fullest, loving others and living for Christ’s glory.
As such, the undulated nature of my life is a blessing and an excitement.

Thus, the thoughts rolling around in my mind today led me to the word of the day from April 2000, and to a new perspective on the life that I live.

Embrace the waves of change. Look for what life has to offer. Think about what it is that motivates you. Where do your opportunities come from? How do you feel about the undulating nature of change?

Time to stop not writing.

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Writing

Working through a bit of a dust cloud over here. I’ve wanted to write more than I have been, at least since I’ve been out of school, but really haven’t gotten back into the groove yet. Why? Not sure. I think there’s a part of me that enjoys not having to write (say, for a deadline or to someone else’s standards), but then there is a larger part of me that desires to put something on paper. I can feel something pushing around in my thoughts, but I just don’t quite know what it is yet. I want to write something. Something that means something, even if not to anyone other than me. I just don’t quite know what…

It would seem that there’s a fair amount of writer’s block in the ol’ noggin. Of course I can advise others of various techniques to beat the block, but somehow its just not working the same for me. Per my advice in class last week, I’ve tried freewriting, brainstorming topics, journaling excessively, reading my favorite authors,  and just plain thinking about things that matter that I might like to write about. So far: nothing. At the moment, I’m sitting on the couch staring at book titles on the shelf across the room as if they will offer some sort of inspiration. Perhaps if I look through the kitchen pantry one of my favorite ingredients will inspire me and I will write about my love for cooking. Maybe if I look outside the window I will see something remarkable that will spur me on to an out-pouring of brilliant thoughts. Or, maybe I’m still just sitting here.

What, then, does it take to get past writer’s block? I have to admit, there are more words here than I’d anticipated being able to produce. I still don’t feel like I am ready to write, though. I haven’t gotten to the Write Place yet…

The Write Place. I named this blog effort as such because of how closely connected I feel to different places in life (physical and otherwise) that inspire me to write. Also, because I hope that this will be a place to air my writer’s thought’s and post some of the things I do manage to put to paper. Today feels like its missing the Write Place. I need it, but I can’t seem to find it. Is it because the darn power cord keeps me from relocating to a place I can think? Is it because I have too much “other” stuff going on in my mind? If I could find the Write Place I think I could get this something out of my mind and onto paper.

Maybe my quest for the weekend is simply to find the Write Place for whatever it is that I have that’s trying to find its way to paper. Maybe my quest is to define what it is that I can feel pushing around in my mind. Whatever it is, this is the weekend I start working to figure it out. This is the weekend I stop not writing.

Ubiquitous

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Christ, Love

Have you heard this word before? It’s an interesting word, I think. When spoken with authority, is encompasses much. When whispered with timidity, it encompasses much. How does it accomplish the same thing in two different contexts? Well, for something to be ubiquitous, it is all-encompassing, everywhere, wide-spread, constant. To put it into context: we could say that air is ubiquitous. It is everywhere, all at the same time.

Or, I like to think of God’s love for us as ubiquitous; it covers all, all the time. (I know, I may have lost some of you there.. but hang with me for a second!) 1 Peter 4:8 says: “Above all, love one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” This is the example that Christ set for us though his death on the cross. And, what’s more impactful than an example that is set not by words but through actions? … What if our love for people reflected this exemplified, ubiquitous ideal? What if I simply wanted to genuinely love others to the point that another’s sin against myself were counted as forgiven, just because I love that person? It may not change the fact that bad things happen, but maybe it would bring us some perspective to the idea of what it took for Jesus to accept dying on the cross for us. And, maybe we would find that its easier to love than to hate, or be angry.  As I think about this word that I read, “ubiquitous,” and consider the bigger picture of “life,” I challenge myself to love others with a love that is all-encompassing, all the time.

I’d love to hear from you! …

What do you see in life (yours, someone else’s, life-in-general) that is ubiquitous?? How does this word resonate with you??