Mid-month Mention: A Passel of Poetry Posts

During National Poetry Month, I wanted to focus on a few former posts on various poets. I would be remiss to neglect mentioning my own poetry out the gate. Travelling all the way back to 2009, I shared a poem I had written for an exercise on another poet's site. It is called "At the Corner of Now and Then," and provides images of the merging of lives when we moved into my husband's grandmother's house (in 2006). The poet who inspired that experiment was L. L. Barkat, author of Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places (reviewed here). I loved finding the old post reviewing her book because it contained a little illustration I had forgotten about. The illustration reminds me to tend the talents I've been given.

In 2022, I tended those talents and self-published a book of poems for parents of prodigals. Titled Watching the Wayward, it puts expression to the many emotions experienced when you discover your teen/adult child has departed from your desired path for them. You can find links in the sidebar or on my author website. If you love podcasts, check out this podcast interview for my testimony and the story behind my book.

Here are 3 books that have inspired my creative life: 

1. Andrew Peterson's Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making, 
2. Annie Dillard's The Writing Life,  
3. Nicole Gulotta's Wild Words: Rituals, Routines, and Rhythms for Braving the Writer's Path (I think I'm in the "liminal" space right now).

In preparation for working on my poetry, I consumed several books by (or about) favorite poets. Here are a few of those: 

• Emily Dickinson's biography, These Fevered Days
• Ruth Bell Graham's Footprints of a Pilgrim and Prodigals and Those Who Love Them
• Beth Moore's Things Pondered and Further Still

And, I wanted to mention my favorite personally known poet:

• Kyle L. White - especially his book Freezing and Thawing: New and Revised Stories from the Midwest - Kyle is also an illustrator and creates prints available on his prints website. Right now he's promoting a set of 6 prints based on the rhythm of the church calendar. Here's the blurb in his advertisement: "Bring a peaceful rhythm to your household's year with this unique series of reflective art prints. The six artworks come with an easel, a background story, and an explanation for each season of the liturgical calendar. All illustrations will be hand printed on the vintage presses of Mordecai book building in Middleton, Wisconsin. And when you preorder the bundle by May 15th, you'll receive a 7th art print. It makes for a good reflective gift for people all around you too."

I recently saw a post on FB about an influential high school teacher who listened to a girl spill her problems and at the end of the year left an inspiring phrase in her yearbook. The post was written by Elaine Jarvis. Her daughter made a bookmark with the teacher's oft-remembered phrase (teacher: Everett Thomas):

(photo credit: Elaine Jarvis)

Book Review: Supercommunicators

I noticed several people mentioning a desire to read this book by Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit (another one that sounds interesting). Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection was #6 on the Amazon charts when I wrote this review (now #16). Quite a buzz! While interesting, it wasn't my favorite book about communication (not that I could tell you what title tops this one). Plus, I enjoyed the first two sections far more than the third.

Duhigg breaks communication into three levels of conversation: practical (What's this really about?), emotional (How do we feel?), and social (Who are we?). All three levels can operate simultaneously, but Duhigg feels it is important to identify which kind of conversation you are having, in order to better form connections. The book holds practical advice on how to foster deeper connections. Since connection is key to happiness in life, it is worth exploring how to communicate like the pros, the supercommunicators. Maybe you've known a super communicator, one who can extract meaningful conversation from anyone. They listen well and probe further. They match your emotions and mood and foster trust. I am NOT a super communicator. Yet, I gleaned some interesting fodder for consideration that may improve my efforts to connect with others.

In one intriguing experiment, researchers came up with 36 questions and paired strangers to explore the questions together. (Those questions are available in the notes section of the book. I jotted them down and am eager to pose these questions to my family members, to learn more about their insights and thoughts.) It seems the type of question is key (especially ones that seek emotional investment in answering feelings, beliefs, and opinions). I could improve my questions and my listening. Duhigg tells of a CIA operative seeking to convince a foreign woman to provide intelligence. Negotiation requires skill to get someone to do something they don't want to do. Communication that fosters trust is essential. 

The book ends by explaining how important authentic, meaningful connections are in life. Those who form good connections live happier lives. So how do you form better connections? This book is instructive and well supported with illustrations and anecdotes. I still think there are things unexplored that hinder people from forming solid connections. Yet, it cannot hurt to consider ways to enhance communication.

Book Review: If You Want to Write

Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write is an encouraging pep talk, and one I needed. I loved many things about this book. Primarily, I loved her explanation that criticism kills creativity. When a writer presents a work to another for feedback, that individual can spur the writer on or defeat their soul. Heavy-handed criticism, voiced to "help improve the writing," shrinks the heart of the writer, causing them to second-guess their abilities instead of freeing those abilities to flow. 

Ueland, as a writing instructor, points out the noteworthy sentences and fragments and draws the writer out into the open instead of shutting them down. It reminded me of wise words I heard when I worked with an outstanding 3rd grade teacher, Ms. McKee. She explained that when faced with a student beset by negative behaviors, the best course of action is to highlight and praise positive ones. Catch them doing something good. Encouragement often works better than correction.

I also loved the idea that art is infection. When something is well written, the reader catches the writer's vision. He or she sees what the writer sees, feels what the writer feels. If you are writing on a subject you feel passionate about, that passion will pour from the pen. It will ignite passion in someone else.

At the end of this book, Ueland reiterates a dozen principles for creating art that further inspire the writer to think positively about their goals. She asserts everyone has talent, is original, and has something important to say. She reminds us that writing is a privilege rather than something too hard to approach. Her encouragement? "Write freely, recklessly, and in first drafts." This supports what I learned in almost ten years of participating in Nanowrimo (National Novel-Writing Month): writing flows when you silence the inner critic and push to create a rough draft. Spit it out! You can spit-shine later! 

Fear is often what holds a writer back. Will it be good enough? Ueland urges the writer not to fear writing terrible stories. She recommends writing two more and then returning to the first story. Good writing taps the true, honest, and untheoretical self. I loved her phrase, "Think of yourself as an incandescent power, illuminated by God." 

Moreover, she warns against the comparison trap. "You are like no other being ever created." Thus, I must remember that nobody else bears or can weave the story God has given me to weave. Makes me want to fire up my laptop and write!

Book Review: The Wish Book Christmas

I wouldn't have sought out a Christmas book now, but The Wish Book Christmas is the follow-up novella to Lynn Austin's If I Were You. I enjoyed that one so much, I was eager to return to the characters again for my treadmill time. Thankfully, Hoopla had it available in audio form (at only 4-3/4 hours long). It was a splendid follow-up. I still loved the first book more though.

Audrey Barrett and Eve Dawson are raising their 5-year-old sons together in post-war America. When their boys' addiction to the Christmas toy catalog reaches a fever pitch, the two mothers vow to teach the boys something about giving back and expecting less. Both women struggle against forming new love interests. Yet as the events unfold, they learn more about forgiveness, second chances, and God's enduring grace. This feel-good novella is a great way to celebrate the spirit of the holidays (and was even fun when approaching spring). I may return to both of these again in the future.

Book Review: Forty Autumns

So many times, I read stories about real individuals who did astounding things and I cannot even begin to put myself in their shoes. My heart ached for this family. They were the victims of political and social pressures that no individual should have to face. They lost their freedoms. Life became a tenuous and troublesome challenge. It is soul-crushing, what they experienced.

The story begins when the author, at age five, learns that her grandparents, Oma and Opa, live behind the Iron Curtain. Her tiny mind cannot grasp what that means. Then, the story unfolds - how her grandparents had 9 children and family was all-important to them. When her mother, Hanna, was only a teenager, the communists took over East Germany. Hanna, longing to be free, escaped to West Berlin, leaving her family behind. For forty years, they suffered almost absolute separation (visits denied, letters and packages absconded, connections feared because of the outcome of associating with a defector). Hanna eventually married and moved to America, where she raised six children with freedoms unimaginable to her family back in Germany.

The atrocities and injustices that the East German people endured were both shocking and cautionary. Communism required that they surrender their food, with the promise of equal distribution. They were subject to propaganda and misinformation, painting the West as evil, Eastern ways as most beneficial, and communist loyalty as imperative. Those in power confiscated their food, took away their jobs if they didn't agree with the political/social narrative, and threatened their lives because of the informants' greed. How shocking and disturbing to learn the statistics of those informants! "At the height of their power, the Stasi had employed one informant for every sixty-six residents; factoring in part-time informants, the number more accurately approximates one in six East German citizens."

It was harrowing to read of individuals shot while attempting to reach freedom. The oppression broke their spirits. They lived under constant suspicion that someone might report on their disloyalty. If only we could read of this historical period and learn, so as not to repeat this again. Sadly, I believe it will come to that again. Indeed, the Bible foretells such persecutions:

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good," 2 Timothy 3:1-3

"But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." Luke 21:12-15

Even relatives will turn against the godly:

"And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." Luke 21:16-17

"And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death." Matthew 10:21

They will believe they are serving a greater good:

"yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." John 16:2-3

Men will be oppressed if they refuse to cooperate with the marking system:

"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Revelation 13:16-17

Praise be to God, though evil seems to triumph, we know God wins in the end! His justice will prevail! Those who oppress and put down believers will pay the price - eternal separation from God. May I be counted among those who endure:

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." 1 Peter 4:12-13

"ye endured a great fight of afflictions; Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." Hebrews 10:32-34

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." James 1:12

I am grateful for this riveting history as preparation for coming days. How I pray I may endure and receive the crown of life!

A Multitude of Movies in March

I spent the first week of March watching quite a bit while staying with my mother. She calmed to every musical and somewhat when I watched the BBC's The Monarch of the Glen (a series I have no access to, but my parents own 7 seasons of it - I only managed 3-1/2 seasons). We watched her beloved Meet Me in St. Louis, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, Les Miserables (a staged production), and my favorite, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. My house is very quiet. We don't watch television at all (don't have cable or any other access points). Still, the practice of watching must have influenced me because I watched more movies in March than I have in a long time.

Not long ago, I discovered my library access to a documentary/movie portal called Kanopy. It is like Hoopla (a certain amount of credit per month), but focuses on documentaries and movies. I watched a documentary about William's Syndrome called Truelove: The Film. Then I got on a Felicity Jones kick. I watched Like Crazy, about a British student attending college in America who overstays her visa. It was a sad and disturbing movie about how bureaucracy stood in the way of her marriage. Not one I recommend. My next Felicity Jones fare was the Masterpiece Theater production of Northanger Abbey, a book I read 5 years ago.

After that, I explored famous writers who lost children (don't ask me why). So, I watched the Roald Dahl story, To Olivia. Then, I watched the 1977 movie, Mary White. William Allen White was a writer and author in Emporia, Kansas. His 16-year-old daughter died when she struck a low-hanging branch while riding her horse. The actress who played Mary did an outstanding job of communicating the girl's spunk and convictions.

Sean was interested in the Mary White movie because it corresponded to a period in history that he was then studying in his AP US History course. I also watched another movie at his behest. He had read the book Into the Wild for another class. I regretted that choice because it had a few minor nude scenes in the telling. No doubt this is why the teacher didn't share the movie with the class, ha!

Watching some of the Viking TV episodes about Great Britain led me to seek some more British fare. Thus, I watched Irish Wish, a cute little movie set with gorgeous footage of Ireland. It is about a young American girl who makes a wish on an ancient stone in Ireland. She wishes to marry her best friend's fiancé. As her wish unfolds, she learns it wasn't the best wish. I also made a 20-mile trek to the closest theater I could find showing the movie One Life. I adored Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter in the film. Yet, I think I would have been fine waiting for library access and watching it at a later date. In my opinion, the documentary my husband and I watched on Kanopy in February (called Nicky's Family) was a more compelling telling of Nicholas Winton's story. Oh well.

So, what did I do besides all that movie watching? Well, nothing much. It seems I've been expertly avoiding thinking about difficult things. I did, however, begin purging in the kitchen. At this point, I only have two bags and am through a third of the cupboards. I attended a webinar on memoir writing (not for myself, but because a close friend has asked for help in writing her memoir). I would love to pick up where my writing stalled out mid-year, but still haven't made that happen. If my friend can get me writing again, even in a quasi-manner, it will be helpful.

2024 - First Quarterly Review

To assist my blog readers, I summarize my reading four times a year, providing a brief description, the page count, and a grading scale (💖5 thumbs up - highly recommend, 4 thumbs up - enjoyed, 3 thumbs up - good, 2 thumbs up - meh, and 1 thumb down - regret, wishing I could get back the time invested). What a stellar quarter! 5 💖books I highly recommend. Of the rest, all were 4👍 or higher, except for 1 at 3👍. I read the following books during the first quarter of 2024 (links to full reviews can be found in the side-bar, or after 2024, found through the search bar at the right):

You Were Always Mine by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza - A book that brings up so many discussion-worthy topics: race, motherhood, adoption, abuse, and love. True page-turner based on an unusual "what if" premise. 318 pages, 👍👍👍👍

Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobbie Brown (with Kathleen McGurl) - A novel retelling of the largest civilian loss during WWII, a devastating catastrophe of 173 crushed to death after one woman's fall down the stairs to the underground shelter during an air raid. 304 pages, 👍👍👍👍 

Dear Henry, Love Edith by Becca Kinzer - Similar to You've Got Mail, a couple begin corresponding under false impressions. Will love win out? 384 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 8-1/4 hours), 👍👍👍👍

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles - A group of four boys, self-styled musketeers, set off on a journey heading on the Lincoln Highway, bound for California. However, two decide they must first make a trek to New York to retrieve something that belongs to them. With plenty of friction, conflict, and unique characters, the story is riveting and worthwhile. 592 pages (I listened in audio form, 13 CDs, 16-1/2 hours), 👍👍👍👍-1/2

💖Do You Pray? by J. C. Ryle - This powerful treatise on the urgency, power, and purpose of prayer is a must-read for anyone interested in boosting their time in communion with God. It is too important to let slide! 72 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 1-1/4 hours), 👍👍👍👍👍

💖Loving Him Well: Practical Advice on Influencing Your Husband by Gary Thomas - If you want to change your marriage, start by remodeling yourself. Loving your husband well may require sacrifice, but God's goal of honing your holiness is always worth whatever you invest. 288 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 8 hours), 👍👍👍👍👍

💖A Lifelong Love: Discovering How Intimacy With God Breathes Passion into Your Marriage by Gary Thomas - Seek to address the pillars of a good marriage: spiritual intimacy, relational intimacy, and devotional intimacy. 224 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 5-2/3 hours), 👍👍👍👍👍

Reset: Powerful Habits to Own Your Thoughts, Understand Your Feelings & Change Your Life by Debra Fileta, M.A., LPC - 31 suggested practices to change your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and break patterns of dysfunction. 224 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 5-3/4 hours), 👍👍👍👍

💖Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner - A beautiful, though tragic, tale of innocence lost, differences scorned, and lives redeemed. 400 pages, 👍👍👍👍👍

The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club by Faith Hogan - Amazing how swimming with friends in the Irish Sea can make looming obstacles seem smaller! Loved the camaraderie, the colorful setting, and the interesting characters. 352 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 8-1/3 hours), 👍👍👍👍

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins - This prequel to The Hunger Games series wasn't nearly as riveting or thought-provoking as the rest of the books. Glad to have given it a shot, but will not pick it up again, even if I re-read THG. 528 pages, 👍👍👍

The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page - A debut novel that tugs heartstrings and reminds us that we all have a story to tell. 314 pages, 👍👍👍👍

Authentically, Izzy by Pepper Basham - A lovely epistolary novel about love, loss, and family. 432 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 12-1/4 hours), 👍👍👍👍-1/2

💖If I Were You by Lynn Austin - Best Lynn Austin novel I've read yet! Such a riveting tale of two women whose lives intersect and come to a crossroads when one assumes the identity of the other. 464 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 13-1/2 hours), 👍👍👍👍👍

The Soul of Prayer by P. T. Forsyth - The writing is not easily digestible, but bears consideration. He argues for the power and importunity of prayer! 108 pages, 👍👍👍👍