Comments, please.

I’ve got my feet propped up and my laptop open, waiting for words to appear on the screen. My mom graciously invited me to the Florida coast with her for a few days for a writing retreat, and of course I was thrilled and said yes! At that time, six months ago, I assumed I would have a much stronger sense of what and how I was going to write than I do at this very moment. We got here yesterday and I’ve had a few 20-minute spurts of good strong writing, but most of the time is me setting up my workspace, staring at the clouds from the balcony, watching the seagulls, making more coffee, attempting a handstand to get the blood flowing to my brain. 

A pelican just dove down into the shallows for a fish!! He made a mighty splash and then came up and floated there, satisfied, chomping down his lunch.  Who can write with such fascinating surroundings and the soothing breeze of an overcast ocean day?  What was I thinking calling this a “Writing Retreat”, when I’m not really a writer.  I puts so much pressure on myself with titles like this that I psych myself out!

We might as well give it up and go for lunch.  But Mom’s all busy with her important things, fingers clicking away on her laptop and not bothered a bit by my huffing and puffing and pleas for her to listen to my first page.  Nope. She is not the least bit interested.

And who knew that I was such a narcissistic writer that I need someone listening every hour (ok, every half hour) for input and affirmation?? I should have guessed that I’d be just a little neurotic when I got down to it.

When the pelican took his last plunge and broke my brilliant train of consciousness, I had a better idea. I thought that instead of avoiding writing I would post a blog that is more of a plea.  Would any of my readers (who have read my work over the past couple years) be willing to share a topic or two you think that I should attempt to write about?

I feel a sense of urgency to share the story of our first 3 years overseas. I have done this in bits and pieces on my blog, and I’ll continue to do so here.  But I feel that I’m supposed to get it down in a more cohesive, whole way that demonstrates the work that God does with our junk when we continue to follow Him radically and trust Him in challenging places.  So that’s what I’m going at this week.  And your input (and let’s be honest, your affirmation) would be oh, so, appreciated!!! It would just bless my little narcissistic writer’s heart.

Thanks in advance… I’m off to attempt a page on pilgrims in pursuit of holiness in the Himalayas. On my own unlikely pilgrimage and the lives that were changed through a fairly inconvenient eruption of all my junk– and subsequent death and rebirth. Only Jesus can do these things. And sometimes writing it down shows us more clearly than ever before.

Thank you, dear blog readers, for reading, encouraging, and inspiring me!

Rebecca

Shahin Abasov Flickr via Compfight cc