In This Issue
Word Whisperings
Beachside Writers
Touching Base
Looking Forward
 

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Word Whisperings 
Live with Intention 

 

Live with Intention:  rediscovering what we deeply know by Mary Anne Radmacher, Conari Press

 Many of you may have seen plaques and cards and wall hangings bearing a series of ten wise thoughts beginning with "Live with Intention."  These are the musings, deeply considered, of writer/teacher/artist Mary Anne Radmacher.  I love her insights and the frolicking way she puts words and color and ideas to paper.  To have a small, easy to hold book that offers an expansion on each of the ten  elements of her poem, is a gift indeed, one perfect to begin the new year.  The last one, by the way is "Live as if this is all there is."  An excellent thought for a new year.

                I confess that I've bought a lot of self-help books through the years:  to improve my eating habits, exercise more, create a better sense of self, get organized.  Except for ones relating to improving spiritual practices, I've rarely finished any of them!

                That lack of follow-through comes, I suspect, from the constant nagging as I read that I'll never get there, that I've failed so many times before why would I think this book will make any difference?   I compare myself to the author's wisdom or the examples of successful others and I fall short.  Sadly, I've often gotten up to eat chocolate rather than finish the book.

                 But Mary Anne's books are like my spiritual practice books:  I want to finish them.  They feed me and they change my life by keeping me aware of what truly matters. By the end of the year that I've read one of her books I discover that changes I didn't know I wanted to make, I've made and I'm grateful.  Her words seep into one's spirit with direction and grace. I even give Mary Anne credit for a part in our major move this past year.  Her "Choose with no Regret" will keep speaking to me when my heart turns to the John Day River and the memories made there.   We're making memories here now, next to a pond we're keeping open for the birds with one of our stock tank heaters.

                An interview with Mary Anne about her writing and artistry and teaching is posted on my Words of Encouragement Blog at www.jkbooks.com.  Through the years our lives have intersected at focused moments.  I've taken several on-line writing classes from her (yes, writers do keep taking classes!  There is always more to learn!) Her voice in her latest book is like sitting with a good friend, talking, listening, taking a next step.  You can find out more about her at www.maryanneradmacher.net 

                Janet Conner, author of Writing Down Your Soul:  How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within perhaps says it best.  She says that Mary Anne "is the messenger of our hearts.  And Live with Intention is the perfect message for this moment."

                I agree.  For whatever this new year will bring, a cup of tea and Mary's Anne's Live with Intention book will be a steady companion, one you'll want with you all the way through 2011.

 


Permission to Forward Story Sparks

 

Some of you have asked if it's all right to forward Story Sparks to friends or to print it out for others who might not have computer access.  Yes and please include my name and the section telling people how to sign up on their own.  But before forwarding, be sure your friend really wants to see it!  Lots of forwarded emails get shot around cluttering up the web and I wouldn't want Story Sparks to show up in more "deleted" items than in the hearts of readers.

Story Sparks

"Stories are the sparks that light our ancestor's lives, the embers we blow on to illuminate our own"

Greetings!  

                

January Journals

After my sister died several years ago, her oldest son and daughter-in-law gave me several of my sister's journals.  They decided such intimate things that one would write in a journal ought to be in the hands of someone who would honor their intention and keep them private.  I remember being humbled that they'd give them to me and opening the first one with great reverence. 

 

My sister was everyone's friend, could strike up conversations with strangers in the bathroom at the grocery store that made any eavesdropper think they'd promised their first born to each other in marriage some years before. She was frequently late (carrying on conversations with strangers, I suspect), loved her two sons dearly and rode horses with abandon.  She did some public speaking and made people laugh.  She wrote inventive Christmas letters so I was excited to see her journals.

 

I opened the first, begun January 1.  I read through the entries.  Not too much that one couldn't share with the kids or that total stranger.  A bit about the horses, the view of the Cascade Mountains from her window that she loved.  How the snowmobiling had been.  Even though there were lines, she wrote through them, upward, as the optimist she was so I even had to twist the journal to read the end of the sentences.

 

All writing in that first journal stopped on January 31 of that year.  No more entries.  I opened another year.  Began on January 1; ended on January 31. Each journal duplicated the one before it in the number of entries -- not a single journal entry was written past January 31!

 

Did nothing happen after that in her mind that needed mentioning?  Or by February did life simply take on a rhythm that didn't allow time for writing?  I sometimes wondered if the things she might have wanted to write about really were too personal to put down and so she abandoned any writing rather than risk discovering something by writing that she didn't really want to know.  Her illness had been sleeping inside her body all her life coming to consume her about five years after the last January Journal in the collection.  There were family issues...there always are.  So perhaps one month of hopefulness and cheeriness was all she could muster when real life began in earnest come February.

 

JournalThis has come to mind this morning as I was given a lovely journal by a good friend that I began writing in this morning. (Text and design compiled by Jeannie St. John Taylor.  Published by CBD). It has beautiful scriptures that at least in these first pages focus on being still, finding silence for prayerful contemplation.  These are perfect for me having made a promise to myself that I would remember that "love is patient" and "does not take offense."  Being silent for a time each morning, allowing prayers of gratitude and forgiveness to enter into my days, is one way I can practice patience, put busyness aside.  With unpacked boxes still around us like lily pads on the pond, I so easily see "to do" lists forming rather than quiet words written into a journal that could inspire my day.

 

How I wish I'd had my sister's thoughts to consider now that I've lived twelve years longer than she did.  I turn sixty-five this year.  She never saw fifty-six.  The pattern of my older sister is missing in my life and those journals would have been treasures if she'd written what was truly going on inside.

 

But journaling isn't for "others" it's for ourselves. I doubt anyone will be interested in my musings after I'm gone and there's a freedom in that.  I can express my disappointments, my faulty thinking, my lack of patience and hopefully make notes as I look back and see progress, change, even forgiving my sister for only writing for a month each year. 

 

My only resolution of 2011 is that I will keep the promises I make to myself.  It will make keeping promises to others easier I believe.  So here's the first:  I promise I will form a different pattern from my sister's January Journals.  Instead I will appreciate the insights found in silence and in listening and journaling for the unknowns I might discover in no other way except through writing honestly as the spirit moves.

Beachside Writers - February 25-27, Yachats, OR
 
BeachsideWriters

For the fourth year, I've been invited back as a guest presenter to Bob Welch's Beachside Writers weekend workshop.  February 25-27 in Yachats, Oregon, has been marked off for a year for me.  Bob was my first writing instructor when we lived in Bend before.  I was so scared in his class just sure everyone could see that I was a fraud.  One of my favorite books of his is More to Life than Having it All and another is American Nightingale about the first nurse killed in WWII.  It turns family history into a great read for everyone.

 

Our weekend at the coast with aspiring and published writers alike is a warm and encouraging time for me and, based on attendees responses, for them as well.  It's a supportive group of fifty people who attend workshops taught by either Bob or me who also make connections with each other, receive feedback and find new steps to take in their careers.  Lots of laughter and food to fill your soul, I mean real food by Ann our chef.  Bob's wife Sally takes great care putting together the most fascinating table decorations -- among other things  -- to tell attendees that they are valued.

 

Consider giving yourself a New Year's present or one to that budding writer in your life who is stuck or struggling with saying out loud "I'm a writer."  Check in at [email protected] for more.  I'd love to meet you/see you on the Oregon coast in February and encourage your days.

Touching Base
 

Jane

 

Join me at one of the upcoming events! 
Check out www.jkbooks.com for new additions. 


January 9- to February 5, A WORKING VACATION IN CABO (where the temperature today is 72 degrees instead of 5 degrees in Oregon).


FEBRUARY

WHEN: February 25-27
WHERE: Yachats, Oregon
WHAT: Jane will participate once again as a guest instructor at Bob Welch's BEACHSIDE WRITERS' RETREAT. Limited to 50 people at various stages of their writing lives, it's an inspirational weekend for both students and instructors. There are only a few openings left. Find out more at [email protected] or www.bobwelch.net

 

MARCH

WHEN: Saturday, March 5 - 6:00 p.m.
WHERE: McKenzie's On the Green, 1 Country Club Dr., Reedsport, Oregon
WHAT: Reedsport Education Enrichment Foundation (REEF) Banquet. Jane will be the keynote speaker at this annual fundraiser and recognition banquet which is open to the public. For more details visit www.orgsites.com/or/reef, or contact Jim Akre at [email protected].


WHEN: Saturday, March 12 - 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: Sherman County Public School Library, Moro, Oregon
WHAT: SHERMAN COUNTY LIBRARY BOARD APPRECIATION & AUTHOR PANEL DAY. Join locals and beyond to honor past and present members of the Sherman County Public School Library Board and stay for the afternoon panel with some of your favorite authors including Molly Gloss, Robin Cody and a favorite poet of Jane's, Rob Whitbeck. A day to put aside spring drizzle and enjoy the warmth of good reads.

 

APRIL 1 -- JANE'S NEXT BOOK IS DUE!

APRIL 5

THE DAUGHTER'S WALK IS RELEASED!

One of the discoveries of researching The Daughter's Walk was learning that the sunflower, in the 1890s, was a favorite of Norwegian women seeking suffrage.  Our granddaughter loves sunflowers too and she thought it was great that such a flower would represent the importance of beauty, being optimistic, and turning one's face toward the light.  In the book A Gathering of Finches where I spent hours with the gardeners at Shore Acres, I learned that what brings on the bloom is not just the quality of the soil nor the tending of the plant but it's the increased exposure to the light.  I love that image and give you here my granddaughter's version of a sunflower facing the adversity of the wind. May it be an encouragement to your own journey in 2011. 

sunflower
Mariah Kirkpatrick's Sunflower

I'll be busy writing these next few months working on edits for Barcelona Calling my first contemporary novel with Zondervan Publishers.  I finished my novella called "The Courting Quilt" for a Barbour collection called Log Cabin Christmas that will come out next fall in time for Christmas.  It's set in early Brownsville so I hope you'll enjoy it. 

Right now, my writing life is wrapped up in lilacs!  My next novel is based on the life of Hulda Klager, a German immigrant, wife and mother of four who on her own hybridized over 250 lilac varieties after teaching herself how to do it by reading a 1903 book written by Luther Burbank.  It's a fascinating story of hardiness and hope and I get to smell the lilacs (among other luscious plants) at the Klager gardens in Woodland, Washington.  Actually, you can too as the gardens are open for three weeks before Mother's Day each year.

 

Please check out my website, facebook page and blog and for interesting up dates and mark your calendars for April 5 and the release of The Daughter's Walk.

Meanwhile, I hope you'll consider writing...perhaps a postcard if nothing else and remember to live with intention.

Thank you
 A mary anne radmacher card designed for me!

Warmly,


 Jane

Jane Kirkpatrick