Something "Other"
I am so blessed to be taking the Creative Writing course here at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). It has been such a rich and wonderful experience so far! And the semester has only just begun!
A thought from my reading...
Each time I begin to read how to perform one of the writing exercises, I am filled with an excitement that, while I know to be irrationally strong, never ceases to feel, at least in the moment, perfectly reasonable.
And yet, when I come to know the nuts and bolts of each exercise, I am always, without fail, left feeling disappointed. I've enjoyed each exercise, and know that they are all with great merit and my resulting work has been exactly what I needed, as a writer.
However, something constantly eludes me. While working on our third assignment for the semester, I had the exact same experience, and the repetition of this rise and fall, this ebb and flow of irrational expectation and ensuing disappointment leads me to this thought...(which I wrote down in the margins and brought here to process)...
For a moment or two (or 3) I struggled again with the disappointment of feeling as if this exercise isn't helping me meet my goal, my dream, my passion, of describing as of yet un-nameable, un-tamed wonder, majesty, mystery that I see within my mind's eye as if from afar.
It is as if I look at mountains across a storm-dimmed bay, their slopes shrouded in mist...and though I know I cannot go there, I must. I must. I must.
Because there is something hiding in, behind, and beyond those mists. And I must see it, taste it, smell it, touch it, feel it...I must know it. I must have it.
I wonder, if perhaps this thing, unnamed, untamed, is God? Or perhaps some measure of wonder, of majesty, of mystery that He has cast out in front of me, drawing me ever onward, and ever upward.
"Further up! Further in!"
A thought from my reading...
Each time I begin to read how to perform one of the writing exercises, I am filled with an excitement that, while I know to be irrationally strong, never ceases to feel, at least in the moment, perfectly reasonable.
And yet, when I come to know the nuts and bolts of each exercise, I am always, without fail, left feeling disappointed. I've enjoyed each exercise, and know that they are all with great merit and my resulting work has been exactly what I needed, as a writer.
However, something constantly eludes me. While working on our third assignment for the semester, I had the exact same experience, and the repetition of this rise and fall, this ebb and flow of irrational expectation and ensuing disappointment leads me to this thought...(which I wrote down in the margins and brought here to process)...
For a moment or two (or 3) I struggled again with the disappointment of feeling as if this exercise isn't helping me meet my goal, my dream, my passion, of describing as of yet un-nameable, un-tamed wonder, majesty, mystery that I see within my mind's eye as if from afar.
It is as if I look at mountains across a storm-dimmed bay, their slopes shrouded in mist...and though I know I cannot go there, I must. I must. I must.
Because there is something hiding in, behind, and beyond those mists. And I must see it, taste it, smell it, touch it, feel it...I must know it. I must have it.
I wonder, if perhaps this thing, unnamed, untamed, is God? Or perhaps some measure of wonder, of majesty, of mystery that He has cast out in front of me, drawing me ever onward, and ever upward.
"Further up! Further in!"
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