by kyle | Nov 16, 2016 | Encouragement
Monday morning I pulled out my notepad, as I do on most Mondays. I jotted a list of things I wanted to accomplish that week. Suddenly it hit me. If I do the same thing week after week, all I will have accomplished is my to-do list. I wonder if there is something bigger I am meant to accomplish.
I began consider my bigger goals, the ones that push out in the future. One of these is being a fiction writer. In that moment I knew that if I continued doing the same things I am doing now, I’ll be in roughly the same place this time next year.
That isn’t to say I haven’t accomplished some of my objectives in writing. I think my writing craft has improved in the last year. I was able to finish a novel in time to pitch it at a large writer’s conference in August. Though that is a milestone, believe me, the prize has not yet been won.
by kyle | Jul 25, 2016 | Encouragement
Summer is speeding by in a blur. Seems to take all year to get here, then it’s gone. Back to fall, then winter. I usually feel prepared for the fall by the time it gets here, especially after many weeks of temperatures over 90. Funny how I’m always ready for the next season by the time it gets here.
Events of our lives are like that too. We worry about this or that in the future, but by the time the space closes between the Event and us, we’re ready for it. We lean on God for the outcome and find we have a reservoir of strength we didn’t realize was so sufficient. So complete. A bit from ourselves (we have a few tools and attributes, though they fall kinda short), a lot from Him.
by kyle | Nov 6, 2015 | Encouragement, Journey
At times it’s uncomfortable being a beginner. I look at my Italian book and I don’t know how to say anything useful, other than “the dishes are in the kitchen”. Um…where else would they be?
Same thing happens in the pottery studio. I look at the pieces of art made by professionals who use the same studio, and it makes me feel pretty small. I wonder, just how LONG will it take to make something that doesn’t look like an artifact from Pompeii? (post-volcanic eruption, I mean…)
And I won’t get started about fiction-writing. There, the learning curve is so far out, you can’t see the end.
by kyle | Nov 4, 2015 | Encouragement
Today I got into a closet-cleaning mood. I really have to act on it when it happens, because it won’t happen again until the next comet is scheduled to fly by. As I re-organized, a couple of interesting things surfaced. A couple of necklaces I thought I’d lost, and a folded-up piece of paper. I was intrigued. I opened it and it was a copy of some encouraging quotes from different sources. I wrote them down several years ago for a group I wanted to do when I lived in France, a small group of...
by kyle | Feb 3, 2015 | Encouragement
There’s this awkward situation. You know the one I mean. We’ve all been there. You go to a restaurant with a group of people, or to a party, and almost everyone else knows one another. You’re the new kid. You introduce yourself and everyone announces their name. And that’s often as far as it goes. They then turn to the person they already know sitting next to them. Understandably, it’s safer ground with known signposts. They aren’t put on the spot thinking up inane questions to ask in order to...
by kyle | Feb 2, 2015 | Encouragement
There I was minding my own business as I sat at my desk. Enthusiastically, I worked on some ideas related to coaching and writing, seeing how these two could work well together. Suddenly I became aware of a strange and unwelcome emotion. It rose up as from a bog, steaming, smelling putrid. Before I knew what was happening, it had begun taking over my body. My shoulders slumped and my energy leaked out like a water balloon with a foot-sized gash. My great plans didn’t look so thrilling anymore....
