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Heather Lee on Embracing the Unknown

Unknowing seems to follow those who are paying attention.
~ from This Moment of Retreat

As writer, as mother, as person in charge of dessert for a big dinner party, there are plenty of times when I lack all sense of what to do or how. On a bad day, not knowing will push me to quit whatever it is I aim for, but on a good day–as Heather Lee illustrates in her guest post today–I can recognize the gift of reveling in the unknown. Look for Heather’s special offer for readers at the end of the post.

I Really Don’t Know–Listening in the Moonlight

Heather Lee

DSC_0438Just a caveat—I really don’t know how to write a guest blog post. Like Christi, I just “moonlight” as writer. I love this idea and often notice in conversations with others just how much delight and growth we experience when we try things that we don’t know how to do, when we get to remove all the labels and educational titles, and just be—dancing or writing or singing or playing in the sand. There is beauty, isn’t there, in the moonlight?

For me, the beauty is in moonlighting as a writer, because while the art of writing isn’t how I make my living, it’s definitely a part of making my life.

I have a “shaking my head” grin on my face because much of creativity starts and ends with unknowing doesn’t it? I really don’t know how to write songs. I’ve never taken a music theory class in my life, but somehow in the unknowing, I have written and recorded two cd’s (She Stands and Into the Light).

I don’t know how to have an online presence with this work I don’t know how to do, but somehow in the unknowing, I have set up a simple but functional website). I don’t know how to give a sermon, but somehow in the unknowing, I’ve delivered countless—here is one of my favorites where I sing too.

In fact, I really don’t know how to write. I’ve never taken a college level English class in my life—I’m an Accounting Professor for heaven’s sake, and a mother, and a wife. But see, in the unknowing, I write spiritual prayers and devotions for The Word in Season AND I just published a book.

WIPFSTOCK_TemplateThe book is called, This Moment of Retreat, and, for me, is a simply a point, a marker, on a journey of listening to my soul’s creative call in the midst of unknowing, of saying yes to being led without knowing the destination. The book is a gathering of retreat resources that encourage and teach practices of listening to the present moment. Listening to the healing guidance being sung in the moonlight, in darkness and light, in the here and now. Listening and being led by the voice of God, by the spirit or energy of light, by the creative call of the universe—by a higher power by whatever name you would like to name it—that is asking for you and taking you someplace unknown but taking you there knowing. Knowing that you are supposed to go–trusting.

Each of the seven chapters of my book offer resources for spiritual growth and creativity in the form of prose reflection, prayer and meditation, Scripture passages, poetry, earth metaphors, journaling questions, and an originally recorded song. More importantly, the pages offer encouragement through the sharing of my experience and my art. Readers are encouraged to come to the moment, retreat to this moment, without agenda, open and unknowing, and to delight in the listening and, ultimately, the singing of songs with themes like waiting and growth, acceptance and letting go, and mystery and trust–the Unknowing.

For me, the creative journey has been one without agenda and often a wandering around in the darkness and moonlight. It has been a practice in listening for the next right thing, one moment at a time.

This means when someone invites me to write a guest post, I say sure. I may not know what I’m doing, but I will follow.

When the moment asks me to write a song, I say sure. I don’t know why these words seem beautiful right now, but I trust.

And thank goodness I am just “moonlighting” and that the darkness–the unknowing that exists even while creativity shines–is not a burden but a grace. A permission to take a moment of retreat from the analysis of the past and the worry of the future to the right now to sit in the creative, beautiful mystery of the unfolding path and to listen in the moonlight.

Peace to you all.

Heather Lee uses creative writing and music, both the process and outcome, as a means of spiritual exploration, healing, expression, and discovery. She writes poetry, prose, prayer, and song that attempt to capture the intensity of human emotion and spirit in reflective, honest, and challenging ways. She lives in Wauwatosa, WI with her husband, children, and dogs. Visit her website for more information about her work and to order her book. Like her on Facebook.

For Readers: Heather is offering a guest blog special. Sign up for her mailing list (that she just figured out) and receive a daily thought for your moment during the month of February.

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Guest Post: Erika Dreifus on Jewish Storytelling

file000845471725Last year when I spent the evening in my uncle’s living room the night before my grandmother’s funeral, he told stories about her, about my great-grandparents, about Mama and Papa Murdoch. I recorded tiny notes in my phone. These pieces of my history have become critical to my understanding of the world, and some of them were new to me; I didn’t want to forget at thing. Lisa Cron (Wired for Story) explains why:

Story evolved as a way to explore our own mind and the minds of others, as a sort of dress rehearsal for the future. As a result, story helps us survive not only in the life-and-death sense but also in a life-lived-well social sense.

Stories then are tied not only to history but also to the culture of family and beyond. Today I welcome Erika Dreifus to talk about storytelling–its significance and symbolism–within her culture.

On Jewish Storytelling

By Erika Dreifus

When Christi invited me to contribute a guest post on the topic of “Jewish storytelling,” I thought immediately of the perennial joke: “Two Jews; three opinions.” And that’s because the very phrase—“Jewish storytelling”—invites debate. As far as I have observed, writers (and readers) seem to be engaged in a lively, eternal discussion, unfolding in print and online, to clarify and define what makes a given story “Jewish.”

Some of my ruminations on this subject stem from my own writing, notably my short-story collection, Quiet Americans, which is inspired largely by the experiences of my paternal grandparents, German Jews who immigrated to the United States in the late FigTreeBooks_Logo1930s. But I’ve also considered the subject more broadly, particularly as I continue to read and write about other people’s “Jewish stories,” and, most recently, as I’ve joined the team of new company, Fig Tree Books LLC, that focuses on publishing “the best Jewish fiction of the American Jewish Experience.”

Helping me shape my thoughts throughout is a website that I discovered thanks to one of the innumerable Jewishly-focused newsletters I subscribe to. At The 5 Legged Table, educator Avraham Infeld’s teachings frame a discussion of the question: What is being Jewish all about? The underlying principles impress me as applicable to a related question: What is a Jewish book or story all about?

Briefly, the 5-Legged Table comprises the following elements:

  • Memory: “While history is about what happened in the past, memory is about how that past drives our present and our future.”
  • Family
  • Covenant: Grounded in the idea that, at Sinai, Jews committed “to recognize one God; to make the world a better place for all people; and to use certain rituals to define and shape Jewish time and space. So, for Jews who observe any or all of the mitzvot, and those who are committed to tikkun olam (repairing the world), and those who serve the Jewish community, or move to Israel, the covenant established at Mount Sinai is still a tie that binds.”
  • Hebrew
  • Israel

My hypothesis: To the extent that these are the “legs” on which a particular book stands, that book is a Jewish book; its story is a Jewish story.

Note that the work need not necessarily include all five legs. After all, tables normally stand on four. But I take pride in realizing that, to varying degrees, all five are woven into Quiet Americans:

wpid-Photo-May-21-2012-149-PM.jpg
“Yet it was the freedom in the words that mattered.” ~ from “Lebensraum”

Memory: The book itself stems from the transmitted histories of my grandparents and their families, and how all of that accumulated history is remembered and continues to influence me.

Which leads to family: Family relationships are at the core of virtually every story in my book.

What about Covenant? Here, I think especially of one story in my collection, “Lebensraum,” and the role that Jewish ritual plays there. Moreover, in a small gesture of tikkun olam, I have been making quarterly donations—based on sales of Quiet Americans—to The Blue Card, a nonprofit organization that aids U.S.-based Holocaust survivors, ever since the book was first released.

Hebrew words—albeit transliterated—are sprinkled throughout Quiet Americans.

And Israel is very much on the minds of many of my Jewish-American characters, whether they are watching Golda Meir speak on television after the massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972, or anguishing over the Second Lebanon War (and international condemnation of Israel for it) nearly 35 years later.

So that’s my take. But others have their own views on Jewish stories and storytelling. If this question interests you, I recommend that you explore the views of a diverse array of writers in Moment magazine a couple of years ago. There’s more food for thought—much more, in fact— in those contributions.

ED1014bErika Dreifus lives in New York, where she writes prose and poetry and serves as Media Editor for Fig Tree Books. Visit Erika online at www.erikadreifus.com and follow her on Twitter (@ErikaDreifus), where she tweets on “matters bookish and/or Jewish.”

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Author Melanie S. Hatter on Writing & Time

Melanie S. Hatter lives out east, and I imagine her smile lights up the city today the same way it did a tiny island last year when we met. Melanie and I both attended the 2013 Salt Cay Writers Retreat in the Bahamas, and one of my favorite photos from the entire week is one I took on the day before we all left for home.

Melanie & MeI’m grateful to have met Melanie and honored to host her on the blog. In her post, she talks about what I always brood over: time.

The Time to Write, Eventually

by Melanie S. Hatter

“I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do the day after.”
~ Oscar Wilde

When I changed careers a couple of years ago, my goal was to create a more balanced lifestyle that allowed me to work on my fiction writing. After 10+ years in corporate communications, I had burned out and decided it was time to make a complete change. So I waved goodbye to the corporate world and headed off to massage school.

Yes, massage school.

I wanted something completely different, something that would be fulfilling but still provide an income while I completed my second novel. (My first, The Color of My Soul, was recently released as an e-book.)

In the first few months after graduating from massage school, I worked at a nail spa that also offered massage. I started by giving free chair massages just to get clients familiar with me, and eventually I was paid for each massage I booked. I was required to be onsite every Saturday and most weekdays to sell massage to clients coming in for a manicure or pedicure.

Being a lousy salesperson, I mostly ran errands and generally played girl Friday, providing free labor for the spa’s owner. I grew frustrated that I was spending most of my time standing around a spa without getting paid when I could have been at home working on my novel. Though I was grateful for the experience, I started searching for a more lucrative job. Very quickly, I found a position as an independent contractor at a massage center where I only had to be there when scheduled to work on a client.

I slowly built a clientele and have been there now for almost two years. I achieved my goal in finding a regular income but also found a supportive work environment. I know my physical limitations and do massage on a part-time basis, so to supplement my income, I continue to do freelance writing, manuscript editing and attend the occasional book fair to sell my novel.

Without a doubt, I am living the life I had designed for myself: balancing writing with massage and continuing to pay my bills without the stress of a regular nine-to-five office job. That doesn’t mean I have no stress – being self-employed has its challenges (paying my own taxes and healthcare) but I love the freedom to create my own schedule.

That said, this lifestyle has not made the writing process any easier. I do have more time to write – I spend most mornings writing while working at the massage center in the afternoons and evenings three days a week and every other weekend. Now that I have the time I used to complain about not having, I still procrastinate. It’s an affliction most writers have. Just since starting this blog, I’ve put a load of clothes into the dryer, checked the freezer for what to cook for dinner, and folded sheets that have sat in the basket for more than a week.

One of the best methods to keep me on track was having a writing buddy. We would create a schedule each week for when to write – as much as two hours and as little as 15 minutes, depending on our schedules. We would call each other to begin then call again when the time was up to discuss what we had done. It was the best accountability and I credit this system for getting me to finish a first draft of my novel-in-progress. Unfortunately, my buddy switched jobs and, not having the same free time, has since left me to my own devices.

As a result, my attention to my novel has been a bit sketchy of late. I like to think that in my state of procrastination, my unconscious is mulling over a particular scene or formulating where the story must go next. Thinking is writing, I tell myself. It’s part of the process. And inspiration can come at any moment.

But while most writers are procrastinators at heart, we also have a resolve that keeps us pushing forward. There’s a determination inside me to get this book finished and see it blossom in the world. We possess willpower, quiet as it may be, to finish what we’ve started. We must keep sitting at the screen or staring at the notebook. We write because we must.

So, once I finish the laundry, load the dishwasher, check Facebook and catch up on episodes of “Criminal Minds,” I will open the laptop and write.

~

Melanie S. HatterMe_0913 lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area. She has a background in newspaper journalism and corporate communications. She also is a licensed massage therapist and practices in Maryland.

Her novelette, “Taking the Shot,” was published in electronic format by Etopia Press, and her short stories have appeared in,  The Whistling Fire, The Lipstick Pages and Diverse Voices Quarterly. Her short story, “Obsessed with Claudia,” won the First Annual Romantic Tales Writing Contest.

Born and raised in Scotland, UK, Melanie is bi-racial (rumor has it there’s some Cherokee in the bloodline somewhere down the line) and is pleased that the US Census now allows individuals to identify as more than one race.

~

COMS_1Check out Melanie’s website for more information on (and links to purchase) her novel, The Color of My Soul, and her novelette, Taking the Shot.