To NaNoWriMo or Not to NaNoWriMo...

...that is the question.

I've done (and "won") National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the past two years. It's been difficult and freeing and stressful and wonderful to write like that...with such literary abandon, and without stressing about quality--just quantity. Just working on whatever could get me past 2000 words that day. I wrote a lot of crap, and maybe some decent stuff. But mostly crap.

Image Attribution

You see, writing fiction is sooooo not my thing. My thing is nonfiction. And, upon the rare occasion (increasingly rare lately), poetry. So why am I thinking about making another November even more stressful?

Partly because of the rush of writing like that--allowing words to flow like water through my mind and my fingers--is such a high. It's a confidence-builder, even if no one else sees it.

Last Sunday over lunch with Kitty and Judith, we talked about confidence...and our lack of it. The next morning I texted Kitty that I was praying confidence on her behalf. As I texted, my mind roved to the Latin lessons I had given the kids: con means "with"; fide means "faith." So confidence is to go forward "with faith." And that text was a reminder for me as well as for my friend whom I see as being very confident, one who always seems to go forward with faith.

But confidence does not only mean to go "with faith" in God which at times seems almost easier than to go "with faith" in self. Yes, as Christian women, we are to go forward "with faith" in God--definitely. But faith in self seems to be something we're not supposed to have...only faith in God. But I can't help but think that we also need to have some faith in ourselves, in the abilities God has given us.

It's like the Parable of the Talent in the Gospels. Two servants invested the talents given them, and they pleased their Master. But the third servant had no confidence...no confidence in the Master (whom he called "a hard man") and also no confidence in himself to invest that one talent.

Yes, God can grow us in confidence..."with faith"--grow our faith in Him and grow our faith in the talents He has given us to invest. We women of God need to go forward "with faith" in God's ability to grow and mature the talents with which He has gifted us, and "with faith" we can exercise these talents for His glory.

Over the past two years, NaNoWriMo has helped me to go forward "with faith" in writing. Writing fiction, although it's not necessarily my gifting, has helped me in writing in other genres, especially in nonfiction and essay. It's kind of like building up the stomach muscles so that one can lift more with one's arms. More is possible because different muscles are being strengthened and developed that will directly affect the areas that we are strong in...and wish to become even stronger.

But my November is already crazy...with homeschooling three boys, teaching two co-op classes and doing all the grading required, working through the editing/proofreading process on the big project with Father Acker, plus I'm teaching a research paper class on Brave Writer. I don't know how easily I can squeeze in a few hours of writing each day for the entire month....

So, I will have to think about it. And pray about it. And seek how God wants me to grow and go "in faith" in writing this next month.

How many of you are going forward "with faith" to write 50,000 with NaNoWriMo?

Praying to write confidently ("with faith"),

Burn the Floor: One Hot Night!

Through Jen at Mommy of Many, I won two tickets to see the opening night of Burn the Floor at the San Diego Civic Theater.

And it was AAAA-MAAAAZING!!!!

Once we arrived at the Press Table, we were given upgraded tickets...in the orchestra level, only about twelve rows from the stage, and right on the aisle which was soooo nice. The ladies at the Press Table asked if an aisle seat would be easier for me with my cane, and it certainly was. The tickets would have cost us $109...each.

Whoa.

And then we saw the cast list.

Double Whoa.

As fans of So You Think You Can Dance from Season 2 (now working on Season 8), Elizabeth and I were thrilled to see two of our favorite ballroom couples, both married to each other: Ashleigh and Ryan, and Anya and Pasha (pictured below). We were soooo excited! Pasha especially has been our long-time favorite and the recipient of many of our votes during the season he was competing. And it was wonderful to see both Anya and Pasha on the most recent season as returning All-Stars.

My favorite section was "Things That Swing" because I adore music of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Anya and Pasha were incredible in the final two numbers, "The Dirty Boogie" (Jive, Lindy, and Swing) and "I'm a Ding-Dong Daddy" (Quickstep, Lindy, Jive, Swing). At the very end of the final number before the intermission, several dancers were jiving in the aisles, and both Anya and Pasha passed within ten feet of us.

Mary Murphy, a San Diego native and owner of the Champion Ballroom in San Diego (where I have been to watch a friend's daughter perform), was the guest performer and she was wonderful! Magical, in fact. Her first few dances were waltzes, but she finished the night with some wonderful Jive and Cha Cha, especially the closing two numbers, "Proud Mary" and "Turn the Beat Around."

And the Rumbas with Anya and Pasha (pictured above doing their Rumba) and Ashleigh and Ryan were superb! Usually Rumba is my least favorite of the dances, but these romantic dances, between husbands and wives, were heart-felt and beautifully danced. Simply lovely.

The evening flew by...so quickly. The live band was amazing, the singers (Peter Saul and Vonzell Solomon) coming down onto the dance floor and becoming part of the show rather than just the "background" music.

Burn the Floor featured "international style," which has been danced competitively since 1920; ballroom is comprised of ten dances: five Standard Dances (Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Viennese Waltz, and Quickstep) and five Latin Dances (Cha Cha, Paso Doble, Rumba, Samba, and Jive). And we saw ALL of them last night, plus a few others like Lindy, Swing, and Salsa. Wonderful!!!!

Burn the Floor was absolutely, completely one of the most amazing evenings I've spent. Elizabeth and I came out of the theater smiling from ear to ear, still not believing that we had seen these amazing dancers for the past two hours. As we drove back to her college, my daughter declared, "I will never forget this night!"

Neither will I, Sweetheart. Neither will I.

Burn the Floor continues through Sunday, October 17 here in San Diego, so if you live here in America's Finest, then dance, don't walk, right to Burn the Floor!

You'll never forget it.

With sincerest thanks again to Jen at Mommy of Many for the tickets,

Another Hip Homeschool Blog Hop!

Welcome all visitors from this week's Hip Homeschool Blog Hop! Pull up a comfy chair, put your feet up, enjoy a virtual cup of fragrant Irish Breakfast Tea and a Walker's shortbread biscuit or two, and hang out here a while.

Last June we graduated our eldest, our only daughter, who is attending and living on campus at Point Loma Nazarene University; she was home schooled all but one year of her education. Our three boys are in grades 5, 8, and 10 this year, and I welcome comments/questions from those of you just starting this wonderful (and sometimes frustrating and scary) journey of home education.

You'll see pages above on Home Schooling, Living with Chronic Illness, my love-affair with Liturgical Prayer, my Favorite Books on Writing, and even some Selected Poems I've written over the past four years.

A former university writing and literature instructor, I now teach writing classes to home schoolers at our co-op Class Days with Heritage Christian School in the San Diego area and online at Brave Writer, my most-recommended resource for language arts. I just finished teaching a class in story writing, and on Monday I started teaching the MLA Research Essay Course for high schoolers--there are still a few spaces and plenty of time to catch up if you're interested in enrolling your 10th-12th grader. In addition, I offer an essay grading service through my own website: Susanne M. Barrett: Essay Grading Service for Home Schooling Families.

So welcome to my little corner of the home schooling world and introduce yourself in the comments section if you'd like.

Wishing you well in your home schooling endeavors,

Grateful for Friends and More....

They exude confidence--"con" meaning "with" and "fide" meaning "faith"--as they walk with faith, these beautiful women with Spirit shining through them. We gather around the small round table at Jeremy's On the Hill in Wynola, a tiny village high in the mountains, each sipping wine or beer on this Sunday afternoon, celebrating a birthday and just celebrating life and friendship.

Through physical and emotional pain, Spirit beams strong in them. They may feel brittle, even broken at times, but that's not how I see them. I see joy deep in their eyes, a joy that supersedes the circumstances of life. And there's an innate intelligence that comes forth in delicacy of expression, in precision of phrase, in appreciation of beauty. Lunching with poets is a humbling experience.

While savouring butternut squash soup, Julian apple salads, chicken panini, fresh pommes frites, and peach cobbler, we also relished friendship. Words flowed; images birthed that will bring future thought to fruition. Truth reigned freely, the way it rarely does even among the closest of friends. The autumn air warmed this Sunday in October, swathed in golden-tipped trees and clear azure skies.

I came home from this remarkable afternoon ever so grateful, making definite progress along the Pathway to 1000 Gifts at the Gratitude Community as I thank God this day for...

351. ...a blessed afternoon with kindred spirits dear to my heart and integral to my writerly soul

352. ...celebrating my dear husband's birthday at the same incredible restaurant in Wynola, a lovely evening spent together.

353. ...the joy to have won free tickets to take Elizabeth to Burn the Floor tomorrow night. She was literally dancing around the living room for sheer joy! Thanks to Jen at Mommy of Many for the tix!

354. ...a week off between Brave Writer classes which allowed me time to rest and recover.

355. ...the incredible joy of hearing our middle son practice piano each morning, so creatively, so joyfully, as he composes his own pieces.

356. ...an afternoon by a beautiful pool within view of San Diego Bay and the majestic Coronado Bridge, even if I had to grade essays.

357. ...the great progress made on proofreading the Book of Common Prayer this week.

358. ...the wonderful news that we received permission from Crossways to use the English Standard Version Bible for the Scripture passages in the Book of Common Prayer.

359. ...the support of dear friends during the little crisis mentioned in #360.

360. ...that after a bit of a scare on Tuesday, including an ambulance ride to the hospital from her doctor's office, my mom is doing just fine now. Thanks be to God!!!

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. --Psalm 28:7, ESV

Grateful to God, this day and evermore,

Quotation for the Week

In the light of the lovely autumn season, I post a poem in its entirety. This poem arrived in my e-mail on Saturday, thanks to Poem-A-Day at poets.org. Enjoy this simple yet evocative poem by W.B. Yeats.

The Wild Swans at Coole
by W. B. Yeats

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine and fifty swans.

The nineteenth Autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold,
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes, when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

Autumnly yours,

Thanks for your patience....

I don't usually post stuff here for contests, but I just had to do so for the chance to see Burn the Floor here in San Diego.

You see, my daughter and I have been fans of Dancing with the Stars since Season 1 and So You Think You Can Dance from Season 1 as well, and Elizabeth took ballroom dancing lessons at the San Diego Junior Cotillion years ago and now participates in the swing dancing club on her college campus.

I didn't tell her about the contest for two tickets to Burn the Floor...until I received the e-mail from Jen saying we had won the tickets!!!!

So on Tuesday night, I'll be picking up Elizabeth from campus and taking her downtown to see this amazing, incredible show!!! Yay!!!!

Doing the happy (ballroom) dance tonight,

Burn the Floor!

I am reposting this as an opportunity to see Burn the Floor! here in San Diego. My daughter and I are huge ballroom dancing fans...and we love San Diego native Mary Murphy, too. So here it goes:

A Mommy of Many™ Giveaway! Let’s go Have Some Fun at Burn The Floor!


October 7, 2010 by mommy of many™

I am so excited to have the chance to see and review this show! And I’m even more excited that I get the chance to share it with you! One lucky reader will win a pair of tickets to Burn The Floor opening night, Oct 12th. at the San Diego Civic Theater.

Enter to win by reposting this post and emailing me at Jen@MommyofMany.com to let me know. You MUST email me to be entered! The winner will be chosen at random tomorrow evening. I’ll post the winner’s name before bed tomorrow.

Whoo Hoo! Let’s go Burn the Floor! (if you haven’t seen the video and wanna see what all the excitement is about, check it out here).

Good luck!

Through a Glass Darkly

One of my favorite Scripture verses has long been 1 Corinthians 13:12. It reads thus in the English Standard Version:

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

However, I have always much preferred the familiar King James translation of this verse:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Yesterday's Daily Reflection written by Mark Roberts of the Higher Calling discussed this verse and revealed some deeply intriguing thoughts about this verse. Roberts writes,

The original language could be translated, "For now we see through a mirror in a riddle." The Greek word ainigma stands behind the word "riddle" or "cloudy." Ainigma is the basis of the English word enigma, and it refers in Greek to something puzzling or unclear. The point is that our knowledge of all things, especially of God, is not complete or clear.

Roberts also notes that mirrors in the time of the Apostles were much different than the mirrors we have now. Our mirrors of today usually return a perfect reflection (unless someone has spattered toothpaste water from the bathroom sink on them). But the mirrors of two thousand years ago were made from buffed and shined metal which presented a distorted and unclear image, often barely recognizable. An enigma. A riddle. A puzzle.

And that's how we see God now. Our human sin distorts our vision, blurring and confusing the way we see God, ourselves, and our world. It's a puzzle, an enigma, that we can't work out this side of heaven, no matter how hard we try.

You see, not knowing something kills me. I want to know it all. And I want to know it now. And the simple fact is that I can't know everything during my life on earth. I can cram my head with facts day and night. I can read every book I can get my hands on. I can write Pulitzer-winning essays. I can publish multiple poetry collections. I can seek out the wisest Christians and question them exhaustively.

But even with stuffing all of this knowledge into my brain, I'll never know more than an atom of what God knows. Knowing it all is an impossible task. Oh, some men and women have been brilliant: Galileo, Newton, Shakespeare, Churchill, Madame Curie, Einstein, ... I could go on. But even they, the best and the brightest that humanity has and can offer, still see through this same glass darkly. Life is still as blurry and as confusing and as indecipherable to them as it is to me.

BUT...on the other side of heaven, we will meet our Creator, our Father, our Beloved One face to face.

I will face Him. He will face me. And this way, face to face, I will come to know. To truly know. In fact, I will know everything just as clearly and distinctly and truly as He knows me.

After all, He is the author of humanity. He spoke, and humanity became real. He breathed Spirit into our spirit, and we took our first breath of the air He made for us, tasted the food He created for us, touched the animals He thought into being for us, walked this land and drank this water that He designed for us.

He knows us. In fact, He knows us so intimately and loves us so deeply...as if there were only one of us to know, one of us to love.

And that's how WE will know. In the words of the English Standard Version translation,

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (Emphasis mine)

I am not just "known"; I am "fully known." And so are you. And so are all of us.

What a heady concept!

And, even more incredible: I will also know just as fully, know just as completely.

This verse grants me so much hope. For when I am frustrated, unable to understand why God allows Darfur and school shootings and starvation, I reach for the assurance of this verse. Somehow knowing that one day I will know the why's and wherefore's of this crazy life, full of suffering and pain and joy and tears, makes it a little more bearable.

Because there's HOPE.

The hope of understanding. And the hope of eternity with Him.

It's nothing I do. It's all what He has done. And somehow, the God and Father of our Lord Christ opens His arms wide, welcoming all humanity, and promises us that we will know, even as we are fully known right now...this very second in time.

And He opens His heart wide...and welcomes us HOME.

All thanks be to God.

A mere pilgrim on the path to knowing,

Seeing Him in the Meadow

It's one of the major reasons we bought this house. It's right outside our gate, and our front porch overlooks it all. It changes with the seasons: as it is now, browned with autumn frosts and thirsty from long summer drought.

It's peaceful and quiet, this piece of land outside our gate. It spreads itself out between the surrounding hills, purpled by sunset shadows. As light fades, the meadow shift subtly. As the seasons merge one into another, the meadow reflects the passing months in flora and fauna.

When snow falls in our Southern California village nestled in mountains 50 miles east of and 4000 feet above the sea, it's an event. Schools close, smoke from chimneys floats into paler grey skies, and the laughter of delighted children rings across the meadow. From the front porch I gaze across frosted lawn and whitened meadow fields, hands gripping tea mug, content in watching snowball ambushes and the creation of Calvin-styled snowmen.

And spring greens the fields as rains arrive, soaking the thirsty soil and birthing wildflowers galore.

And through all seasons, in all weathers, I see Him at work as His Creation groans under high winds that rake between mountain peaks, and sings with bloom of daffodils across the valley in April. His Resurrection calls across the green meadows each spring, reminding us of His sacrifice, His new life.

I see Him as Grace arrives in the form of welcome rain, so scarce in parched Southern California, often more brown than green. I see His gentleness in the small animals that skirt the new growth, shyly peeping at us as we stroll by on the road. I see His majesty in glorious sunsets that brighten dusky skies.

His beauty blooms forth in fresh spring foliage, in night skies studded with sparkling diamonds, the constellations glowing true, in fall colour dotting the treetops, in snow tumbling from leaden skies.

How can I not see Him in the midst of His Creation?

"Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!" --Psalm 57:5

Seeing Him here, now and always,

Joining the Hip Homeschool Hop!

It's been a busy day...a day of planned home schooling which didn't happen. My dad called this morning to tell me that my mom had gone to Urgent Care this morning with pressure in her chest, shortness of breath, and very high blood pressure. Her doctor sent her right off to the ER in an ambulance. I quickly posted the prayer request on Facebook and to my online prayer lists before leaving to go down to the city. When I arrived a little over an hour later, my brother was already there, taking a day off from his pilot job.

We soon learned that Mom's cardiac workup was normal, but they wanted to transfer her from the hospital in La Jolla to Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest, near downtown San Diego--which they decided to do while Dad, Tom, and I were at lunch in the cafeteria. So after eating at the salad bar, we all made our way south to Mercy Hospital, Dad stopping by their house to get some things for Mom in case she had to spend the night. Tom and I met in the lobby and stopped by the gift shop where Tom bought Mom some flowers, and I sprang for the most recent People Magazine.

We hung around all afternoon, and after further tests, Mom was released to go home and follow up with her personal doctor...thanks be to God!

So after a day of non-homeschooling, I'm still game for the Hip Homeschool Hop! Welcome to all new visitors and dear friends!

You may read about our Home Schooling adventures on the page above, plus other pages on the Value of Liturgical Prayer for Evangelicals, and even some of my original Selected Poems.

So here's the Hip Homeschool Hop! Welcome!!! :) (Even if I am too late to join the list...sometimes being on the West Coast is a distinct disadvantage....)

Homeschoolingly yours,