One year ago today I posted this photo on social media with these words: “I’ve been at this pretty much all day and haven’t made it past the second page. Whose idea was it for me to write another book anyway?”
I was buried in revisions of The Presence of Absence: A Story About Busyness, Brokenness, and Being Beloved (which I called something else at the time), trying to find the shape of a story in sand I had shovelled into a sandbox over time. It was fifteen months after I first dared to write in my journal the stirring I felt to write a new book. Fifteen months since I began walking a tightrope between inspiration and inability.
I keep coming back to the idea of writing a spiritual memoir and yet I feel so unqualified even to entertain such an idea. Who am I to think I have known enough of the love of God to write even a paragraph, let alone a book? And yet, I have. After all these years, I feel as if I have been given a touch of the Divine that surpasses the natural and veers sharply in the direction of the supernatural. I know that love. I experienced that love. I feel that love.
I wanted to put this project aside so many times. Even now, when I’m weary, I wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to toss the whole thing in a drawer and just live out my remaining days. And yeah, it would. But there’s this story, and a truth I laboured to tell, and love that keeps drawing me forward.
And so I write. Words that might never go anywhere but that I feel compelled to put out anyway.
I can’t wait to share this story with you. I’m a little bit terrified but I’ve wrestled fear before. (I write some about that in the book.) When I came across this photo of the mess on my writing desk one year ago today, thought about the work I buried myself in the past couple of years, and the fact that I’m birthing a book this year, it just struck me on so many levels—the intention, the effort, the things I set aside in order to write. And the story. Most of all, the story.
Next month, I’ll reveal the cover and more. Meanwhile, I’ve added a hint to the “Books” page of this blog. 🙂
I’m excited for you, Linda, and excited for the people who will read your memoir and find wisdom, inspiration, and blessing within its pages. Congratulations!
Thanks so much for your support and encouragement, Linda.
I’m so happy for you. I cannot wait to see the cover reveal!
Hey, great to see you, Karen!!
Linda, this is a work so many of us need today. I stand in awe of your courage in writing it and sharing your thoughts and beliefs with the rest of us. Can’t wait to read! Blessings as you bring this new “baby” into the world.
Thank you so much for your encouraging words, Sherrey. I appreciate you so much. 🙂
Keep on keeping, Linda. I can’t wait to read it!
Thanks, Joan!