Category: Writing Life

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Faith, Journal, Just do it, Listen, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Writing Life, Yield

Book Quotes

In Mad Honey Jodi Picoult wrote, “We aren’t here on earth in order to bend over backward to resemble everybody else. We’re here to be ourselves, in all our gnarly brilliance.”

Another author wrote, “Stop trying to be someone. You are someone.”

Are you willing to live the challenge to be your own authentic specially created self? There is no one else on earth who can be you. At almost 73 years lived I am here to tell you that you are a special creation, loved and cherished by the Father with special tasks in mind for you and you alone.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 NIV

In Sensible Shoes Sharon G. Brown wrote: “She said, ‘Write what you’re feeling. Tell the truth. Write like nobody’s reading.’ And just like that, I was invited to show up authentically to my grief and pain. It was a simple act but nothing short of a revolution for me. It was this revolution that started in this blank notebook 30 years ago that shaped my life’s work. The secret, silent correspondence with myself. Like a gymnast, I started to move beyond the rigidity of denial into what I’ve now come to call emotional agility.”

Have you tried this practice? Years ago when I began journaling I made Bob promise that he would not read the journal. As far as I know he has absolutely kept that promise. Then later I asked him to promise that if I die before him he would not let the children read my journals. I wrote much in there trying to work out how to parent them. It reflects on my ignorance and searching more than on their behavior and how I truly love them, even when they were on my last nerve.

I sometimes think of this blog as journaling on the screen. Some of what I post comes from my recent journals. Would you take the challenge to be authentic in journal writing? There are no rules in how to do it. At times I write paragraphs with complete sentences. Other times simply a list of words. Phrases that pop up. Prayers, things copied from others, crayon drawings, photographs. Magazine clippings. It is your journal. You can make it any way that you want. The main goal is to be authentic. Having a lousy day? Write that. A great day? Fill the page with sunlit words.

Authentic: genuine, no pretense, transparent. Below is my favorite image of transparent with the Lord.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 NIV

There is something amazing about putting your thoughts and experiences into words. At times you learn something about yourself that was previously hidden from you. You come across thoughts that were difficult to contact previously. At times, uncovering something you knew earlier in life but then forgot! Sort of like a pen as a steam shovel, excavating a basement, down to a bedrock belief.

The shelf with the open shell and the shelf below it up to the Bible and Harper’s Bible Commentary show my journals minus one or two.

I have had folks tell me they cannot write. I always think to myself, “Well you can think. We all think (unless there is a brain injury of some sort.) Write what you think about.”

“Here to be ourselves…Be the someone we are created to be.” Stop apologizing for who you are. Sharon Brown called journal writing ‘secret, silent correspondence with myself.’ I would expand that thought to include correspondence with the Father. When I write it is often a revelation to me what I am thinking. Many times also, there comes a revelation of what the Father thinks about what I hold as truth. Holding a wrong interpretation, if I am willing to yield, that concept can be corrected.

One of the stories Bob was always glad to read to our children was Mike Mulligan. The story is about Mike and his steam shovel, Mary Anne.

The newer types of shovels took away jobs from the steam shovels.

I think journaling can be a form of self examination. Why not give it a try? You might begin like in a child’s diary just recording events that occur. Given time and prayer and a willingness to go below the surface I believe you can find treasures within your own life experiences.

You will never know unless you give it a try! Use your pen as a steam shovel. You just might come upon treasure you buried a long, long time ago!

Posted on in Challenge, Faith, Journal, Just do it, Listen, Memories, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Worship, Writing Life

Give Cheer and Listen

You may remember what I wrote here https://wordpress.com/post/treasures-in-plain-sight.org/10918 about Jeff Koterba and his great drawing shown above, illustrating “We must listen with our ears and our hearts.”

During retreat at sunset I went to my car to get a printed notebook of Treasures in Plain Sight to share with Sister Maureen. You sort of have to read some of my postings if you want to get to know me. Walking back to my room 7:12 PM on 23-6-5 I heard the Lord say,

"I want you to sit
Enjoy the breeze
LISTEN to your own writing."

There is a huge patio with picnic tables near the parking lot. It is covered with a roof held by ropes and poles. I had earlier seen a sister who seems to be confined to a motorized wheelchair. She is younger than me. I saw her sitting on the patio enjoying the evening breeze. The patio overlooked a part of the grounds where the trees open and a small meadow is seen.

I told her, “Look at you! You take your chair wherever you go! I had to walk out here and there is not even a back on these picnic benches!” She rewarded me with a huge, lovely smile.

Sister went back in the building when an alarm rang on her wrist. I wondered if she had been waiting to see deer? There was a lovely meadow in the distance with an opening in the trees. Sure enough,  at 7:27 two large deer came out from between the trees and began to graze in the meadow. I made note of the time to give to her. (I saw her in the cafeteria at lunch the next day and slipped her the note. She cheerfully thanked me with a BIG smile.)

I sat in the evening breeze and began paging through the notebook with writings I had posted a year ago. It was fun to visit memories and see His hand at work in my life. When I had finished I heard,

“Blog or not
writing IS part of your calling."

You see, during this retreat I was asking what the Lord would have me do in the future. I was exhausted in so many ways. If I was told to stop X-Y-and-Z, believe me, I was willing to obey. I had made a retreat here last autumn. The program was Soul Collage. Participants choose magazine pictures to illustrate their theme or train of thought. I brought my most meaningful collage with me to ponder during the retreat. I prayed repeatedly asking the Lord to direct my ways. The focus of this collage is writing.

When I write I bow my heart to the Lord similar to the nun in the white habit, praying that I can find the words to explain my experiences and bring God glory. One thing that has always fascinated me is the sound the waves make as they recede from the beach back onto the ocean floor. “Susurrus”is the word that describes a murmuring stream. Wonder what describes that sizzling water going through sand sound? Those are the things that keep me writing! The bookshelf tells the story of me researching my writing. The keyboard, my obvious method. The clock reminds me that I am to walk Lucky at about eleven every morning. I have a time limit to my writing session! And the fossilized nautilus. That became a centerpiece for my retreat. More later on that.

Returning to the building I found a book I had never seen before. The author is Edward Hays. It is entitled “The Ladder.” What an eye opener! and soul unfolder! I spent much of the evening reading the first 20 or so pages.

The following song describes what was going on for me. Lyrics show on the video.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Listen, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Writing Life

May First Verse

May First ©Molly Lin Dutina

It was a quiet, cloudy morning
Stillness embracing early morn
Then I heard a creaking of the siding
A tossing of the saplings
Turned to bending of the decades old trees
As a ‘mighty rushing wind’ passed through
And almost as quickly the trees returned to stillness

A few moments later another gust came 
It seemed determined to be a steady blowing
Rain came flying past my window 
The wind became a gentle breeze
The music of raindrops overtook the wind
And May 1st was declared by the heavens

The wind, the rain, it all stopped as suddenly as it began
Bird song is heard again
Strange yellow/gray sky as sun rises higher
Wrestling with the spring weather front
Newly emerged maple leaves
Soft in coloring cling to their branch in the breeze
Help me cling to You, Jesus my source of life
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Nature, Poetry, Writing Life

King of the Canopy ©1988, 2014 Molly Lin Dutina

We have more mighty wind storms this year than Bob and I can ever remember. Starting to think this too is a result of climate change? Seeing so many fallen trees the last couple months reminded me of this poem. Enjoy!

High in the canopy of the forest
	In one of the tallest trees
Four buds set themselves
On the end of a twig.

Sealed tight with scales
	They set themselves firmly
	Determined to survive the winter’s
	Thaw and freeze, thaw and freeze.

Then the unthinkable happened
The unimaginable,
 not even remotely pondered, occurred.

In that last big wind storm
	When we wondered what 
	Might be happening in the woods ….
This mighty home of the buds fell.
King of the canopy came tumbling down with a groan
And crash
Many splintering sounds as
The hollow trunk gave way to wind and decay.

The young saplings braced themselves
As branches flew past,
	Rubbing trunks
	Leaving lost members lodged in other’s forks.
The creak and the crash unsettled
The whole forest as small critters
Ran out of the tumbling parts’ way
Wondering why the canopy 
Would want to visit the floor?

With a sigh the mighty giant
Folded into the contours of the forest floor
And lay still in the windy gusts
The four buds, sealed tight, 
waiting for the spring sun to call them forth,
cling to the twig at my eye level now.

There’s a strange new light now
As we walk this bend in the forest.
Sunbeams pour in on a cloudless day asking
“Who will next attempt the role of
King of the Canopy? Come forth! Come forth!”
How many other buds of last year’s canopy 
have become a white tail’s fodder?
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Writing Life

Chatting with a Bot

When I was looking for a career in 1968 I was directed to take data entry classes. We did “keypunch cards” and verification for computers that were the size of most offices. I never learned how to write computer language and really was not interested to learn, though my boss wanted me to learn. To this day I am not afraid of my computer, iPhone, tablet or other devices. Especially since kids these days say, “just start pushing the buttons until you get the result you want.” Ha! There is a new item available to the public.

I do not pretend to understand most of the technological leaps we are making, but this one caught my attention. It said you could ask it to write a poem or a term paper and it would. Schools are worried but not caught off guard. What??!?

Have you ever been online with a question and the site asked if you would like an online chat? Then you likely have had interaction with a ‘chatbot.’ According to Wikipedia, “Chatbot is a software application used to conduct an online conversation via text in lieu of providing direct contact with a live human agent.”

There is a new computer ability that was released for free online called ChatGPT. It is causing quite a stir in the world. It was released November 30, 2022 by a company called OpenAI. (A I is artificial intelligence.)

This system is notable for ‘its detailed responses and articulate answers across many domains of knowledge. “It has the ability,” according to Wikipedia “to write and debug computer programs; to compose music, teleplays, fairy tales, and student essays; to answer test questions (sometimes, depending on the test, at a level above the average human test-taker); to write poetry and song lyrics; to emulate a Linux system; to simulate an entire chat room; to play games like tic-tac-toe; and to simulate an ATM.”

I tried to sign up so I could ask it to write a poem based on a few thoughts I had. Then I wanted to compare its creation to one of my poems. Since every news agency seems to be reporting on ChatGPT the system is too busy to accept new free accounts right now. That is okay. Not certain I want to give them my information or find out how the bot would do with my ideas! Open AI does collect data.

Wikipedia reports that “ChatGPT was met in December 2022 with generally positive reviews; The New York Times labeled it “the best artificial intelligence chatbot ever released to the general public.” Samantha Lock of The Guardian noted that it was able to generate “impressively detailed” and “human-like” text. Technology writer Dan Gillmor used ChatGPT on a student assignment, and found its generated text was on par with what a good student would deliver and opined that “academia has some very serious issues to confront.”

Oh my! Will there be any original human creativity left after the AI world finishes with us? I pray so. I wonder how extensive their knowledge base is of the Christian religion and how access to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit changes human creation? God save us all! And LORD, please help me keep writing to glorify Your name!

Is this beyond the Babel of the Scripture? God knows and time will tell.

 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel —because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Genesis 11:1-9 NIV

Yikes what happens when A I starts talking for us? It already talks to us. God knows and I believe He is in charge!

Posted on in Aging, Faith, Journal, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Writing Life

Reviewing a Journal

Because of the arthritis in my hands I began to journal on my iPad a few years ago. I have kept the habit of a paper journal by printing out those ideas and pasting them in a spiral bound journal. This involves printing out ones I have not printed, arrange by date, cut and paste, etc. For several years, I have sadly dropped the habit of reviewing my journal. When we got ready to travel this month I decided to take the latest journal and review it. I will read through it. Praise God for how He sees me through situations. Mark poetry I likely did not organize in poetry binder, etc. with marker.

Mitchell Luo

Sometimes this yields themes for this blog. Most times it is just for my comfort and remembrance. We are told to rehearse the works of God and praise Him. But do we? I often fail at that task. I remember some highlights, but I drop the minutia that can change the course of my thoughts and arrange my victories in the daily battle against darkness.

Recently I was pondering that warfare. I am sometimes engaged in small struggles that remind me following Jesus is not “all unicorns and rainbows.” If you examine those times in your own life you will likely see that there are recurring patterns in the attacks. When I can recognize, and say ‘oh no, here comes THAT again’ I am better equipped to defeat it. Putting on my armor, praying, raising high the sword of the Spirit, taking every thought captive to Christ Jesus, doing my part not to surrender by means of apathy. If, however, I have not been paying attention I can get swept under a current of negativity and hopelessness before I realize what hit me.

Have you examined your life by a similar means? Some other method? Many recommend making a timeline of your life with God. Note the occurrences that have impacted you. Reflect on where your awareness of God was at each of those times.

Campfiregrace.com

Yes, look back at what has happened and how you went through each thing. We are not to be permanently looking back, but it is helpful to review our life and His participating Presence at each stage.

Journal before I get hold of it with photos and glue stick!

A Prayer to Thank God for His Sovereign Control

Father, we praise You for the delicate way You powerfully align our lives to Your creation. Thank You for the waters and mountains that remind us of You. Forgive us for overlooking Your presence in every aspect of our lives, and bless us to notice and give glory to You, for You are our healer. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

(Meg Bucher) https://www.christianity.com/wiki/prayer/thank-you-prayers-to-give-thanks-to-god-and-the-lord-jesus-christ.html

Psalm 124 NIV
A song of ascents. Of David.
1 If the Lord had not been on our side—
    let Israel say—
2 if the Lord had not been on our side
    when people attacked us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
    when their anger flared against us;
4 the flood would have engulfed us,
    the torrent would have swept over us,
5 the raging waters
    would have swept us away.

6 Praise be to the Lord,
    who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird
    from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
    and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

Find a way to review your life with God. No matter your age, no matter how many times you have done it, making a timeline with God is a great exercise.

Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Writing Life

Best Laid Plans

Well the new computer said I had to restart to install updates. I hit the button and went off to eat breakfast. I really wanted an early start on writing Have had so many interrupted writing days lately. Wanted to get ahead for when we travel next month.

Came back after breakfast and still spinning though it said 100% complete. Started a load of wash. Still spinning. Updated paper journal. Still spinning. By now I was getting aggravated (one of my mom’s favorite words) . Over 45 minutes had passed.

Salvador Dali’s Melting CLock

At Bob’s suggestion asked online what the deal is. Seems Windows 11 is having massive trouble with these updates. Well that does not help me WRITE TODAY!! Turned off computer. When I turned it back on updates started all over. At the moment 63%. So here I am writing on the laptop. Perhaps this is planned practice for when we travel?

Then I thought of this quote and found it on https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-emotional-footprint/201602/man-plans-and-god-laughs

“Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” is an old Yiddish adage meaning, “Man Plans, and God Laughs.” Despite our most careful planning, the Road of Life is unpredictable.

Saul Levine, M.D.

Things will have to be cleaned up on this post for certain! And then updates worked and I am back on the desktop. Yikes. I am not in charge of this blog. Each day I give it over to the Lord. I ask Him to bless the content and the readers, that is you!

We all get frustrated and irritable when things do not go our way. My goal is to shorten the time when this happens and get back to putting my attention upon Jesus as quickly as possible. As Thomas R. Kelly wrote,

Lapses and forgettings are so frequent. When you catch yourself again, lose no time in self-recriminations, but breath a silent prayer for forgiveness and begin again, just where you are.

The Light Within

Would you try that right now? Read the quote above and give yourself a moment to do it. Breath a silent prayer and begin again with Him who loves you best.

Offer this broken worship to Him and say: “This is what I am except Thou aid me.”

The Light Within

I usually pray, “Left to myself I will always mess it up.” Jesus said, “Of myself I can do nothing.” John 5:30a

Help me remember, Lord

As lawn guys go thundering past my window I pray you will keep me focused upon You, Lord God. Help me stay in Your Presence regardless of what the day brings or does not bring. I agree with Kelly, “we are owned men and women.” Have Your own way in and through me. Amen.

Posted on in Aging, Faith, Special Event, Thanks, Writing Life

New and Old

Can almost go without orthotic boot except when walking long distances like at the Sisters of Charity convent from meeting room to cafeteria last weekend. Still doing my stretches and will likely need to do those the rest of my life. Long HOT summer in that boot, but at least I was able to get up and out with it!

Old computer would not run Windows 11 and all the other programs were going like molasses in winter. New computer set up has begun. 

New computer, so much to wade through
Turn this security off
Install this other security
Connect to internet
Where is the chrome browser?
How will I ever get ready for writing
Sixteen hours from now
Download these files
Forget these, but I do not have patience 
to do that complicated technical stuff right now
Then suddenly security is installed.
Add this to taskbar.
Get this working
This will be weeks in the process
As I learn to look here
Forget there
Go over to this place
Learn something new every day?
This could be my brain bank building
For weeks on end!
Where are my music files?!?

intel CORE i7 Dell says there is blue some place on it, guess the dark ridged cover

Ha! Surprised myself being able to write this morning using this new computer and stuff.

Investment in writing, blogging and posting

I suppose without the technology most of you would not be able to read this unless I wrote it out on paper, had the photos developed, had access to your home address, put it in an envelope and sent it off with the proper postage. Yes, I am grateful for the means to be able to obtain the new computer, consult my son-in-law for the best model in my price range, etc. etc.

Most of all I am grateful to God for you, the readers, the gifting to put things in words, access to photos, etc. Learned at my retreat this weekend that I can find free photos at a site called Upsplash. I am looking forward to learning how to use that sight and not be using anyone’s photos without permission. SO here is the keyboard that brings you the blog words, but I use a desk top computer rather than a laptop most of the time.

Photo by Dell on Unsplash

Thank you, Lord, for making provision for this blog. Please bless the readers and the subscribers. May You be glorified in the work I do here. All glory be to You. Amen.

Posted on in Aging, Challenge, Covid 19, Faith, Journal, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Writing Life

Gray Morning After a Rough Night 

22-9-13 Reactive to Booster #3©Molly Lin Dutina
 
Booster #3 delivered with dull needle
Went to PT without boot
Worked until my leg
Felt like jelly
Foot throbbed all night
Headache, chest pain, 
Jaws and shoulders Booster broadcasters
Extra muscle relaxer and Calm app
“Gently back to sleep”
Several times
Booster #3 rocked
My fragile boat
Night of winds and waves
Up by 6:10 AM
Without rejoicing

Others report no big deal
in contrast I am
Close to shipwreck
My heart is sad that this body is so reactive, 
sensitive to Covid boosters.
Thankful I have not gotten ill but 
wishing I had one of those constitutions 
that was not triggered by pain 
after immunization injection. 
Is there an injection for endurance and muscle strength?
Can I get a booster for well-being? Guess not.

But why stop writing there? Resignation is to be to God, not bowing to negative circumstances. 
In Acts 16:25-26 Paul and Silas praised God in prison. Won’t you raise a tune, Molly Lin?

Total Surrender © 2018 Molly Lin Dutina
Total surrender brings total power
Spirit of God in me,
Totally yielded to You every hour,
Until Your will I see.
Death to my passions and every desire,
Living wholly for Thee,
Have Your own way,
Spirit of God, 
Totally flow through me.

No time for wishing things were other than they are. 
Fix your eyes upon Him.
 Understand this temptation to self-pity is sin.
 Jesus the author and finisher of my faith
 is ABLE to keep me from sin, 
self-pity over ailments and frailties. 
Be chastened, corrected, purified,
refined and strengthened. 
Here is my well-being booster! 
This is your only body on earth – your temple for His dwelling.
I surrender to You, Holy Trinity. 
The yapping dogs out there remind me – LISTEN for His voice.
 Do not go with the clamoring crowd. 
Wait. Listen. Accept the present moment.
This is my life this hour. 
Rejoice in God and be made glad. 

“For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work;
I will triumph in the works of Your hands.” PS 92:4 NKJV

“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?  Hebrews 12: 1a-7

I pray this helps those of you who are looking for that booster for well-being. May the Lord Jesus Christ bring you to a place where you too can be “chastened, corrected, purified, refined and strengthened.”

Posted on in Prayer, Writing Life

Grrr

There are times in life when I try to correct errors. There are times in life when that does not work as planned. I was told to copy posts that did not go out properly week before last and re-post them to you with the disclaimer “This post has been republished due to a technical issue preventing some followers from seeing the initial publication….” and a new name and publication date.

Turns out some of you did not get a notification about a new post from me. At this point, I am just going to go forward with my work and pray all goes well from here on. I generally post Wednesday through Sunday. If you do not get a notification from Word Press about a new post by me, and you are curious, you might go to my page on-line and check for a new post. Let me know if you are not getting notifications after signing up to get them. I will try to work with Word Press on the issue.

https://atomic-temporary-149406360.wpcomstaging.com

Better effort this week, I pray.