It Began with an Apple
And a Post About Buying a Bookstore
The mind is a wilderness at times, barren of species of any kind.
No creativity, wondrous calculations, or dreamy visions of what could be.
Then, as quickly as it was emptied by the
Dreary pitter-patter of sameness:
Laundry piles folded
A scratch-tap-scratch of animals needing food
Click-clack of keys
Pounding out the same stale menu of words;
It can be full again.
Alight with a new idea,
A regenerative “maybe that could work,”
Or even a lighthearted comment from a friend:
“Surely, that is a good perspective.”
Minds are like pans used for gem mining.
They can fill up with silt, sticky and meaningless,
Or they can fill up with glorious colors that reflect the light.
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This poem started with an apple. Well, if I’m honest, it began with Shawn Smucker’s post about a bookstore he may or may not end up buying:
In it, he shares a quote by Pulitzer-prize-winning poet Mary Oliver. I inhaled what she said because it echoed what I think about “mystery,” but she said it much better. :-)
As much as I loved writing poetry as a teen and in my 20s, I never read poetry beyond school. I read the usuals: Emily Dickinson, of course, and EE Cummings and Langston Hughes. I remember being fascinated by Sylvia Plath’s journals and the poetry she left behind.
So I had to Google Mary Oliver, having never heard of her, and in that rabbit hole, I found a collection of poems she curated and put together herself. Think of “Devotions” as a “greatest hits” collection.
I was going to read just one poem a day.
But then I opened it.
It started with “The Other Kingdoms” (p. 93) and then “Mornings at Blackwater” (p. 102) and then, of course, the one that would not leave me.
I read “The Orchard” on page 103 and stopped. Something about it tugged at me as if to say, “Hey. You’re done for the night. This is the stopping point.”
It’s about discovery and loss and spending time on the things we think matter most, and ultimately, about the everyday of a life in motion.
I could NOT quit thinking about it, so it got me wondering:
Do you read authors in genres you don’t write regularly?
Do you read authors in the genres you DO write?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. So, comment below or send me an email: brooke@turbowordsediting.com.
Remember the apple I mentioned earlier? It’s become one of my writing snacks lately because apples are handheld, easy to eat, and metaphoric.
Biting into an apple is a risk at worst and a faint memory at best. It either conjures up childhood with juice dripping down your chin at the crispness, or it’s mealy and bitter, and the peel is so thick it gets stuck in your teeth for the rest of the day.
Biting into an apple is like writing.
Sometimes, you get the crisp, sweet juice, and sometimes, you get the log in your teeth that’s tough to let go of and move forward with your craft.
So when you work hard, over a long period of time, final-drafting a sentence, a chapter, an article… an entire finished work that you are proud of, it’s such a sweet, refreshing treat. Like a perfect apple, it reminds you that life’s simplest things are the best.
An Update & 2 “Sweet” Recommendations
First, an update: This was the month I planned to announce and open up my paid Substack, but I’ve decided that the timing is not quite right.
I am excited about what I plan to offer, so lack of zeal isn’t it. I’m planning to offer these fun bonuses for paid subscribers:
A Weekly Tip letter where I share tips, tricks, and tools from my writing friends who are vulnerably sharing their best practices, places, and fun writing retreats with my paid subscribers.
A quarterly book club where we you can opt for one of these:
A. We read a book on the writing craft together and discuss it over a private Zoom call with everyone who read it.
B. I read it with some of my paid subscribers, and we discuss it on the same Zoom call as “A” readers, but then, I share those discussion and summary notes with you who didn’t have time to read it. Essentially, you get all of our best takeaways without having to read the books when you’re too busy.)
You’ll be the first to know about publishing news; there are lots of fun things in the works.
And if you can’t afford a paid subscription, I have some really great ideas for those who want access to the above-paid features without paying. (I’ll share more on that later once I get close to the offered paid newsletter.)
One of the primary reasons I’m putting my paid Substack on hold is to make sure I am serving my free Substack subscribers well. I want to hear from you about what you’d like to see MORE of in this newsletter and what you’d like to see LESS of.
So, the more I hear from you, the better I can tailor these to your writing and reading needs and wants.
Second, two recommendations: I promised myself I wouldn’t buy any more books until I’d finished my Christmas TBR list …until these two books came out. :-) I purchased them and signed up for the launch teams, and now I am sharing them with you.
Why?
They’re worth it!!!
(Above are my actual copies—the ones I purchased and set down on the kitchen table next to my daughter’s three-hole punch, which she left out despite my asking her twice to put it away.)
#1 - Becky Beresford has written a book that takes every cultural misconception about where women’s power truly lies and turns it on its head — instead of the superficial inflection of power that we understand from statements like “You’ve got this,” and “Girl Boss,” Becky shares in her book, “She believed HE Could So She Did,” some of the ways our culture has turned empowering statements into bravado that didn’t come from God:
You are enough.
Believe in yourself.
You can do hard things.
Follow your heart.
You be you.
Speak your truth.
(This is from page 12 of the book, and there are more. I’ve heard these so often; have you?)
In the book, Becky reminds us what is true and what is oriented in the life of Christ: “Female empowerment was God’s idea first.” She writes, “Jesus’ interaction with women when doing kingdom work always reflected restoring their value as well as their God-given rights. This was extremely countercultural.”
She takes the empowering lies we’ve been told to believe above, and helps us see what Scripture actually teaches about our calling to rely on a relationship with our Creator who loves us, guides us and, yes, empowers us.
I highly recommend checking out her book if you’re tired of trying to do more, be more, or achieve more on your own.
#2 - The second book I recommend this month is Emily P. Freeman’s “How to Walk into a Room.”
I’ve been a fan of EPF long before she’d published multiple books, had a podcast or launched and then sold hope*writers. My first encounter with her was reading “Simply Tuesday: Small Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World.”
I’ve gone on to purchase the journal she made for decision-making, and her podcast is at the top of my library list in Castbox.
But this book appealed to me for one simple reason: When I struggle to make decisions, it’s almost always because I am too loyal. There. I said it.
One of my strengths can also become a significant weakness when it comes to knowing whether to leave or stay. Whether it’s a friendship I need to exit (yes, I’ve left a friendship on purpose because it wasn’t a healthy one for me) or a job I need to decline because I am happy where I am, learning the art of making a change (or accepting that no change is necessary) can be tough simply because I value loyalty so much.
That’s why I love what Emily wrote about the loyal stayers.
One of Emily’s points in the book (p. 43) is that our Western culture tends to applaud the leavers — the ones who walk out of a room — and assume the worst about those who stay. She writes, “Here in the United States, the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave,’ where self-expression and autonomy are often held higher than loyalty to a group or cause, the opposite narrative may be at play. Those who stay may be viewed as old-school, trapped, or unenlightened, and the ones who leave may be seen as brave and courageous.”
Grab this book if you think you’d benefit from wisdom and a framework for knowing when it’s time to leave and when staying is the next right thing. (See what I did there? EPF fans will get it.)
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What would you like to hear MORE of in these newsletters and what would you like to hear LESS of?