Archives for May 2010
Writing and Blogging
I was having lunch with my friend Liz a couple of weeks ago, and she asked me, as one does, what I was writing.
I am on a third draft of my memoir, I said; I am writing poetry, I am writing on the Gospel of John, and I am blogging.
“Blogging?” she said. “Oh yes, blogging is writing. I never thought of that.”
Well, dear Liz, what else is blogging?
In fact, a compact with oneself to write a certain number of blog entries a day (more than one, say) does force you to live a little bit more carefully, on the look-out for subject matter for your voracious and ravenous blog.
Writing and Blogging
I was having lunch with my friend Liz a couple of weeks ago, and she asked me, as one does, what I was writing.
I am on a second draft of my memoir, I said; I am writing poetry, I am writing on the Gospel of John, and I am blogging.
“Blogging?” she said. “Oh yes, blogging is writing. I never thought of that.”
Well, dear Liz, what else is blogging?
In fact, a compact with oneself to write a certain number of blog entries a day (more than one, say) does force you to live a little bit more carefully, on the look-out for subject matter for your voracious and ravenous blog.
Brother Lawrence, Living in Heaven on Earth
Quotes from Brother Lawrence
“In the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees in the Chapel.”
“Make it your study, before taking up any task,” Brother Lawrence advises, “to look to God, be it only for a moment.”
O Lord of pots and pans and things,
Since I have no time to be
a great saint by doing lovely things,
or watching late with Thee,
or dreaming in the dawnlight,
or storming Heaven’s gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals,
and washing up the plates.
Warm all the kitchen with Thy Love,
and light it with Thy peace;
Forgive me all my worrying,
and make my grumbling cease.
Thou who didst love to give men food
in room, or by the sea,
Accept the service that I do-
I do it unto Thee.
“I began to live as if there were no one save God and me in the world.”
Frank Conroy–Stop Time
Prophetic activation and fire tunnels with John Arnott of Catch the Fire
My daughter Irene,11, was very excited when I told her I went through a two hour session on prophetic activation and fire tunnels today. It sounded like something out of Harry Potter or science fiction.
It is, in fact, an invention/practice from the famous/notorious Toronto Airport Fellowship (now Catch the Fire), home of the Toronto Blessing. The participants make a tunnel, facing one another, and then take turns to run through the circle (as in the child’s game, Oranges and Lemons). As they walk, run, stagger through it, the other participants lay their hands on them, and pray for them, bless them, or prophesy over them.
It is very intense. One does feel love for all these sweet Brits as you pray for them again, and again. As you strive to see people as Jesus must have seen them, you do begin to feel love for them–to, in fact, see them as Jesus might have. It’s amazing to do nothing but try to see people, and pray for them.
Receiving prayer yourself from hundreds of people is an intense experience. You feel a bit weak, shaken and exhausted, as if receiving a million small doses of electricity.
I went through it three times, then stepped out of the circle. Enough, no more. It’s lovely, but I’m exhausted!!
Les Quatre Cents Coups by Francois Truffaut
A French idiom for raising hell.
An exquisite film by Francois Truffaut. Jean-Pierre Leaud perfectly renders Antoine Doinel, the eternal scapegoat, caught in a heart-rending vicious circle in which the smallest offences call down disproportionate punishments, dealing with which catches Doinel in an eternal cycle of petty offence–unjust punishment–anger–offence.
I think of “Kes,” very similar to Les Quatre Cents Coups.
Salvation in each case comes with love and passion, in almost doesn’t matter for what. In Kes, it is for the lost art of falconry; for Doinel in Les Quatre Cents Coups, it was for the watching, study and ultimately making of movies.
Writing, painting, it almost doesn’t matter what; in love, whether for a person or craft, is indeed salvation.
A dramatic first paragraph. Salman Rushdie The Moor’s Last Sigh.
Scene is seen. Here’s a maximilist and visual opening paragraph.
Salman Rushdie
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