This past weekend I went to Oklahoma City to visit with daughter, son-in-law, and grandbaby Ephraim. I went with my mother-in-law, my wife being already there. We had a good time, a combination of baby-sitting and visiting. An excellent church service on Sunday, where son-in-law Richard preached on Philippians 4:4-9. First he read a story for the children before they were dismissed for children’s church, about a boy named Alexander (I think) who was having a no good, horrible, terrible bad day–with a couple of other adjectives thrown in. His adult sermon was on the same theme. Since I have had a lot of them lately (bad days, not sermons), his sermon spoke to me.
I need to get out of the doldrums; and I shall. It will just take time. I’ve mainly been reading as a means of pulling myself up. I finished a small book (not on the official reading list) for Life Group, Moses: A Model of Pioneer Vision by Chuck Swindoll, which I shall soon review in a post to this blog. I’m also working through The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry. This is a book on how to write formal poetry, which I won in a sonnet writing contest. I’m about three or four days from finishing it, and will review it on this blog when finished.
As I read this last night, in the chapters dealing with various forms of poetry, I found myself suddenly beset with a mild case of Sidelines Syndrome. This hasn’t hit me for a while, so maybe this is a good sign of coming out of my funk. I put the book aside–since I could no more concentrate on it–and began writing two poems. I know, poetry would be the worst possible thing to turn to if I have any hopes of being published, but at least it was something for my writing.
We’ll see what happens tonight. We are supposed to have rain, so I’ll be stuck in the house, nothing important will be on television, I don’t really have to play mindless computer games, and maybe, just maybe, my brain muscles are starting to strengthen. Can a new chapter be far away?
Glad to have you with us last weekend… and glad that the Spirit spoke to you through the message. I was preaching mostly to myself – I’ve had my own struggle with a case of the funk… it is encouraging to me that the Lord is dealing with others on the same issue – He has been gracious to me this week as I have attempted to live out the message – Rejoice in the Lord – always! Hope you all have a blessed week.
ps I’ll try to keep up with your blog more regularly, but I won’t make any promises.
Richard:
Don’t worry about using what little free time you have to drop by and read this. You have much more important things to do as you fulfill your roles as husband, father, son, sibling, and pastor. I don’t know that I’ll be posting much of general interest, or even specific interest, any time soon.
Dave
When a writer is not writing, the best thing he can do is read read read. Make sure to have pen and pencil close by for those inevitable ideas you will get.
Best
Steve
Steve: Thanks for the comments, and for your faithfulness at reading my blog. I think the time away from writing will be measured in months or years, not days or weeks. Life and circumstances conspire against me.
I will, however, capture a few writing ideas during this time, just in case retirement does show up on time and turn out to be leisurely.
Dave