Jump

“To write you must learn quiet.
This is hard, because the world we live in is loud.”
~Suzanne Rhodes, The Roar on the Other Side~

Standing on the precipice, I looked over the cliff twenty feet below. I froze with fear, my feet rooting themselves to the rock edge and my body shaking. I could vaguely hear the people behind me, cheering me on, encouraging me to jump, not to mention waiting for their turn to come. The guide came up beside me, calmly reassuring me as he counted:  one, two, three, four, five! It didn’t work. One, two, three, four, five! Still wasn’t happening.

I just needed to jump.

I have been thinking a lot about that cliff jump lately. The metaphor doesn’t escape me, as this many months later I find that I am at a different kind of rock ledge, overlooking a precipice, even while my inexperience causes me to shake at the knees.

Ready to hear about it? The writing project that I began over three years ago is finally at the point of publishing! The challenge right now is to not freeze in fear with my lack of experience, because I’ve been in that frozen place before. I’ve been cudgeling my brain, trying to add to my literary toolbox, attempting to achieve the angles required for success, but I really don’t know what I’m doing.

When I was in middle school, I remember writing an essay of sorts that the teacher was really impressed with. Although the essay was lost, the compliment stuck, and I started to add whimsical adjectives to describe every noun, like an ornamental arabesque accenting my dance of words. The problem was that my many words overpowered the meaning; the point I was trying to convey in my communication was lost in the tangle of words. But the lessons I learn through my writing, as I write, help me arrive at the why of writing. I suppose it’s why I rather enjoy the round-about and out-of-the-way trails, much like the proverbial path less traveled. Even though I’d be able to get to my destination more efficiently, there are lessons that I’d miss along the way should I have followed the mainstream path. I guess that is why I continue to write, and that is why many people love to read or read a good book:  it’s my attempt to pull the pieces together and make meaning of my jumble, or a way to see how the protagonist works through a character flaw or tough situation. You can read more about my writing whimsies here: https://awalkdownchamomilelane.com/2022/10/15/story/.

So what is my devotional about? Using herbal lore and meanings as metaphors in our growing relationship with God, A Thyme to Grow unpacks God’s truth and explores how He weaves His story within us from perspectives gained through the elemental soil of herbs. He cultivates His kingdom perspectives through our life circumstances or through whatever means that will speak to His child. What would happen if we all tuned our spirits to hearing Him in the midst of the small circumstances? More about that story was written here: https://awalkdownchamomilelane.com/2023/05/23/cultivating-your-craft/.

So now you know, and if you’ve been reading my devotional blog, you have most likely already read some of the devotional meditations that will be in this book!

I have sent yet another “final” draft to my Tirzah Magazine editor, who will e-publish it, and where all proceeds through this venue will support the Tirzah Magazine ministry, an online community of women that seeks to inspire and equip women in the workplace and at home. This is an amazing online magazine ministry that I encourage you to check out here:  https://tirzahmag.com/. Working out the details of indie publishing still holds some unanswered questions for me, but those who have gone before me and have navigated the path of publishing, and those who have encouraged me along the way, have gathered around me, and I can hear them cheering me on and counting: one, two, three, four, five!

I just need to jump.

“The people for whom I write begin anywhere,
—with the first flower or seed they happen to pick up;
and then work on—anyhow!
That is, not heedlessly, nor neglectfully, but as they can.
Therefore not line by line and rule, which is often an impossibility;
but in some strange wildwood way making a path through difficulties, and reaching their Fairyland ‘cross lots’.”
~Anna Bartlett Warner, Gardening By Myself, 1872~