writing

This Day At the Vicarage 9-8-20

/ joseph elon lillie / 4 Comments

I often write with music playing softly in the background. Somehow the rhythm and the sound help me to focus on what it is I need to say. It is like the sound draws the words out of me.

Maybe that has something to do with my years as a worship pastor. I remember one of my mentors teaching me that in order to lead worship effectively, I needed to be able to move beyond the place where I played music into the place where the music played me.

Yesterday I wrote to an Epic Celtic Album on Youtube. Tonight I am playing the Easters. Somehow their music fills me with hope and just a touch of melancholy. Those things might not seem to go together. Maybe they don’t. Maybe they are polar opposites like the yellow and purple on a color wheel.

Color Wheel Primer | HGTV

Maybe that tension is what I am looking for when I write or when I sing or when I do art. Maybe it is what I need. Maybe it is what is required for me to move into my muse. The muse would be God ,so I guess that makes sense. The tension….the inner conflict somehow drives me to seek the Lord and in that seeking I find my creative spark. And that creative spark is the pathway to the music playing me instead of me playing the music or in this case it is the pathway to the space where the Writer reveals to me my story rather than me striving to make it up.

There’s a whole book in there somewhere. The tension is rising within me and that means the story is about to arrive.

Now I am really looking forward to tomorrow dear friends.

Pastor J

Settling In

/ joseph elon lillie / 6 Comments
Person Sitting Outdoors

In prayer over the last several weeks I have felt that 2020 is revealing a process of transition in me. I feel like January, February and March were a time of REALIZATION. I sense April, May and June will be about SETTLING IN. I think July and August and September will be about LAUNCHING. October, November and December will be ACCOMPLISHING months.

Settling in is turning into a time of incorporating the pandemic rhythm into my everyday schedule and practicing those things which God has shown me to do.

PRAYER:

I am settling into a rhythm of prayer and reading the word: Morning, Noon and Night. I am discovering my morning prayer time tends to extend well beyond the boundaries of the hour, while my noon time prayer tends to hover somewhere around 30- 45 minutes. My night time session has yet to find its most comfortable space between 8 P.M. or just before bed around 10. It seems that this night time regimen is the one most affected by the needs of the family.

WRITING:

I am very excited that writing and blogging have become part of my everyday routine. I am managing between 2 and 3 hours everyday.

This week I blogged everyday. Kept up with a reading schedule and finished three poems.

Winter Still Holds On

Is Everywhen

And That Is Time

In addition I wrote several short pieces in answer to several challenges.

The Watch Human

Rebuilding From the Table Up

Lost In White

The projects list for my book is ready for Monday when I am launching into a big week of editing.

WORK AROUND THE VICARAGE:

The weather has broken and we have begun the gardening in earnest. We are calling this year’s garden “The Victory Garden”. I have planted 23 pea plants 18 carrots, and 26 spinach plants. Inside I have 4 Romaine lettuce plants, 2 celery, 4 tomatoes, 5 peppers and 3 strawberries


So many other things are happening at The Vicarage too. I feel like each of us are settling into what is to come.

More updates to come…..