When you’ve finally gained altitude and are in flight through the writing project you told yourself you would get done some three-hundred yesterdays and you just can’t stop the momentum…
And you are living in an alternate universe battling demons, or obsessed with the smallest details about people that don’t exist, or swimming along the bottom of the sea digging up both skeletons and nuggets of gold…
And the people living in the here and now wonder where you are and why you aren’t available, and they get both mad at and bored with you…
What’s not to get?
And when people talk to you, you nod and mumble, “Okay,” because you value them and you’re here, sort of—but they hover and raise their voice and demand, “I said, green beans or corn with dinner?” You stop and look up at them in a fog and wonder, just how it is that a vegetable is important? Good grief, you’re trying to save an entire city from destruction!
“Beans, no corn, you choose.”
And you quickly explain to those you think won’t read your book—because it’s not their genre of choice or they don’t share your world view or because people have so little time for reading —what it’s about and you dare to glimpse into eyes turned large and round under arched brows and so affirming and they say, “Oh, that’s nice.”
What’s not to get?
And you listen to others’ schedules and plans and routines unfold and play out…
And you’ve moved two months ago but are still surrounded by unpacked boxes, but all you need is your laptop, reference materials and cell phone and you don’t mind wearing the same four things, two of which are viewed by society at large as pajamas, and those boxes can wait…
What’s not to get?
And you hear others’ stories about the new restaurant in town or an appointment they missed, or a recipe they tried out—step by step—but what you really want to talk about is a motivation driving a an imaginary person, or the slope of a cliff, or a clever phrase you’ve coined to explain an emotion or societal condition…
What’s not to get?
And you want to tell people that if you were paid even minimum wage for every hour you spent writing, thinking about writing, researching for writing, or were paid back for a writing-related service or item like conferences, editors, videographers, books, printer paper, ink, classes—you could invite everyone you know to move to palatial dwellings on your exotic and spacious private island…
What’s not to get?
And when you finally snap out of this world they don’t inhabit and you find yourself sitting in a chair staring at an empty one beside you and wishing someone was in it, but everyone has taken off fed up or gone to bed, you start talking to the chair…about how deeply you feel your book…about a book idea…about your ideas that could wind up in the book…
What’s not to get?
And try as you might to express it, this writing thing—it’s what you are, not what you do…
But others can’t always figure out just who you are because what you write does change—because as you keep on writing you discover there is something to reality that is fluid, it expands—and they may live out theirs, but yours is always turning into something weird or outrageous or scary or deep—on purpose…
What’s not to get?
Christian Writers Conference Next Month!
Christine
7/13/2024
How Climate Change Extremism Sells Abortion (Part 2 of 2)
Christine
7/9/2024
How Climate Change Extremism Sells Abortion (Part 1 of 2)
Christine
6/25/2024
Whatever Their World View, No, The Kids Are Not Alright, Part 4 of 4
Christine
5/21/2024
Whatever Their World View, No, The Kids Are Not Alright, Part 3 of 4
Christine
5/8/2024
Whatever Their World View, No, The Kids Are Not Alright, Part 2 of 4
Christine
4/28/2024
Whatever Their World View, No, The Kids Are Not Alright, Part 1 of 4
Christine
4/18/2024
Day of Mourning, Day of Shame
Christine
1/22/2022
God's Presence With Wings
Christine
6/18/2021
The Church Needs to Unify in the Battle For Right to Life
Christine
6/10/2021
Our Sixty-Year Decline
Christine
6/1/2021
H.R. 1 Would Be A Bigger Test For The Church Than Covid Shutdowns {Part 2 of 2}
Christine
5/20/2021
H.R. 1 Would Be A Bigger Test For The Church Than Covid Shutdowns {Part 1 of 2}
Christine
5/12/2021
Dangers of Love Growing Cold
Christine
5/3/2021
Democrats' Despicable, Advantageous Use of the Elderly
Christine
4/23/2021
America, Land of Condemnation (Part Three)
Christine
4/15/2021
America, Land of Condemnation (Part Two)
Christine
4/6/2021
America, Land of Condemnation (Part One)
Christine
3/24/2021
Government's Desperate Need for Humility
Christine
3/11/2021
Is the Church Changing?
Christine
1/19/2020
What Are Our Values Anymore?
Christine
11/22/2019
The Final Frontier (Part Two)
Christine
9/4/2019
The Final Frontier (Part One)
Christine
7/29/2019
Soulmate
Christine
4/30/2019
The Colors of a Writer
Christine
12/29/2018
What's Not to Get About the Writing Life?
Christine
4/18/2018
Learning to Sing the Song of Winter
Christine
12/10/2017
Perspectives & the Second Half of the 10 Commandments of Conflict
Christine
8/25/2017
Perspectives & 5 of the 10 Commandments of Conflict
Christine
5/2/2017
Run Writer Run! Make Music with Your Words
Christine
2/15/2017
Mom, the Fishstetrician
Christine
10/14/2016
The CONSTITUTION For President
Christine
6/5/2016
The Radicalization of Hillary and the Democrat Party (PART 2 OF 2)
Christine
4/16/2016
The Radicalization of Hillary and the Democrat Party (PART 1 OF 2)
Christine
4/15/2016
Why Ted Cruz NOW?
Christine
3/19/2016
Why is the GOP Committing Suicide?
Christine
3/14/2016
Dear Chicago
Christine
3/12/2016
Does God Give Us More Than We Can Handle?
Christine
2/29/2016
That Unanswered GOP Debate Question
Christine
1/9/2016
America's Lifeline
Christine
12/31/2015
Fractured Nation (2 of 2)
Christine
11/14/2015
Fractured Nation (1 of 2)
Christine
11/11/2015
What is Orphan Sunday?
Christine
11/8/2015
November's Gratitude and Longing
Christine
11/4/2015
Losing a Child is Like...
Christine
9/12/2015
Finding God in a Tenement
Christine
9/3/2015
Doing School in the 21st Century
Christine
8/22/2015
Superstition vs. Planned Parenthood
Christine
8/19/2015
Addicted to Giving Birth?
Christine
4/21/2015
Why We Should Have "The Talk" Before Marriage
Christine
3/20/2015
Adoptive Parents "Hypersensitive" & "Selfish?"
Christine
3/12/2015
What's So Wrong With Calling It "Gotcha Day!"
Christine
2/26/2015
How God Connected the Dots
Christine
2/7/2015
Exposure of Transracially Adopted Kids to Their Races a Bad Thing?
Christine
2/2/2015
Out With The Old
Christine
1/12/2015
Those Who Scoff at International Adoption
Christine
8/16/2014
Setting Aside Birth Story Facts for Truth
Christine
7/31/2014
Sneak Peak, "How much did you pay for her?"
Christine
6/11/2014
Blessing Through Adoption Pain
Christine
5/16/2014
Eight Ways Publishing Your Book is Like an Adoption Journey
Christine
2/23/2014
Neglected Ministries?
Christine
2/17/2014
It's a Boy
Christine
2/8/2014
Thoughts of Her
Christine
2/1/2014
To My Son
Christine
1/30/2014
Rational Thinking?
Christine
1/25/2014
Minority Against Minority
Christine
1/12/2014
Happy New Year!
Christine
12/30/2013
Happy Thanksgiving
Christine
11/25/2013
You ARE my mother?
Christine
11/10/2013
The Transracially Adopted Children's Bill of Rights and Some Thoughts
Christine
11/3/2013
Infertility Is...
Christine
10/19/2013
Will He Speak English?
Christine
10/11/2013
Kitty-Sam
Christine
10/5/2013
What's in a Name?
Vhristine
9/30/2013
An Adoptive Mom's Message to Those in the Healthcare and Education Professions
Christine
9/25/2013
Being Tested
Christine
9/11/2013
When We Are Weary
Christine
9/1/2013
Trailblazers
Chrisrine
8/24/2013
A Fresh Start
Christine
8/22/2013
God Works Behind the Scenes
Christine
8/13/2013
Why Adoption Requires Forgiveness
Christine
7/28/2013
Dust Bunnies and Poo
Christine
7/19/2013
Reality Check
Christine
7/13/2013
Forgiveness is Work
Christine
7/9/2013
An Answer to Prayer, Part Three
Christine
7/3/2013
An Answer to Prayer, Part Two
Christine
6/27/2013
An Answer to Prayer, Part One
Christine
6/22/2013
Are They Really Brother and Sister?
Christine
6/16/2013
Infertility's Not Fair
Christine
6/13/2013
Has He Ever Eaten a Dog?
Christine
6/11/2013
Sometimes We Fail
Christine
6/9/2013