Posts Tagged ‘Writing ’
Touching Tomorrow
Send to KindleBy: Staci Stallings
One of the cool things about writing is that you never know who is actually going to read what you wrote. A young friend of mine recently found a letter. I’m not sure how she came across the letter, but she was profoundly affected by it. Not so much because of the wisdom it held but because of its ordinariness. It was from the 70′s, which to her is ancient history. She wrote to me to tell me a bit about the letter–that she was surprised the writer of it was so like herself in what she was dealing with.
I don’t know if you write. Maybe you don’t. But I’m always astonished how things I write come back years later to remind me of who I was “then.” Sometimes it’s things I wrote in high school… you know, on actual, actual paper. (Remember that?!) I have one “article” though at the time I think I called it an essay. It was “Only the Crazy People Get Things Done” or something to that effect.
It started out talking about how God uses crazy people, and it cited Noah and Moses and… well, that’s about where it ends. The goal of the piece was to explain how God doesn’t give us many examples of “normal” people in His major miracles. Most of the time, they are people who other people at the time thought were NUTS!
I mean, look at John the Baptist. Not exactly mental stability on display there, right? Or Paul or Peter or Moses… oh, yeah. I’m going to totally lead a million people across the sea on dry land!
The funny thing is, I don’t even know when I wrote that little snippet. I know I was in junior high or maybe early high school, but I wasn’t very old. Yet many of the beliefs I have today are glimmering in that piece… that never even got finished.
That’s the way I feel now with my books. In reading this book that is going out now on the Spirit Light Works blog (“A Work in Progress”), I just had to smile at parts of it because I wrote that story as my eyes came open to God and what He was doing in my life. It was all so new back then, so fresh and amazing. Not that it’s not amazing now. It’s just a more settled amazing.
In some ways I feel like that letter writer from the 70′s. Only I’m not reading someone else’s life. I’m reading mine.
In the next couple of months I get the great honor of coaching our school’s Ready Writing team. Of course, their goal is to win, but I see significance far beyond some one-day contest. When you learn to write, you are literally given the tools and skills to outlive your own life. You can literally touch tomorrow… yours and others.
I think that’s cool.
Learning Different
By: Staci Stallings When I was in my 20′s, my sister-in-law decided to teach me to crochet. Oh, I wanted to learn so I was motivated enough, and I was pretty good with my hands–having sewn and cross-stitched and embroidered. So we sat down one afternoon, and she proceeded to show me how.…
I’ve Known Who You Were For Awhile
By: Staci Stallings The other night our parish school had a fund raiser. Many parents as well as general supporters of our school showed up. I knew many if not most of those in attendance either directly through the school, from the church, or through organizations I’m a part of. There were, however,…
Second Calling Author Talks to Spirit Light
By: Staci Stallings For today’s blog, we’re going to do something a little different. I interviewed Dennis Bates, one of the Spirit Light authors. The second half of the interview will be posted on Thursday. Enjoy meeting Dennis! What is the absolute coolest thing about writing? Why? There are a lot. For one…
It’s here!
By: Staci Stallings You know, there are some things about writing that are just kind of odd. Like when you pick up the phone and someone says to you, “It’s 2008.” Uh-huh. I knew that. “Well, where’s the book? It says here it’s coming out in 2008. It’s 2008. Where’s the sequel? I…
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