The One-Week Daily Writing Devotional
The daughter of an accountant, I’m frequently thinking about money: how to make it, what to do with it, what to feel about it, lamenting its departure. Creatives know how scarce and unreliable money can be, which is why so many opt for unrelated full-time employment so as not to put the stress of a relied-upon income on their passion.
Said Bob Dylan:
“What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between, does what he wants to do.”
It’s the main reason I like giving away things for free. The 52-Week Project -- free writing prompts each week for a week -- has been a beautiful experience and so amazing to see embraced. Today, I’m really excited about another free venture: The One-Week Daily Writing Devotional.
This series runs seven days and serves as a daily opportunity for quiet reflection. Twenty minutes a day, you'll spend time with a few selected readings -- They include pieces from Colson Whitehead, Oscar Wilde, Donald Miller, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosecrans Baldwin, Jodi Picoult, Diane Ackerman and Rae Meadows. We'll separate the chaff from the grain, determining who we are as writers vs. who we are as people.
It’s kind of a terrifying distinction for me, I’ll admit. I share in the first email how scary it can be to separate who you are as a writer from who you are as a person -- because they are different, but we work so hard to define ourselves by our passions that to strip ourselves of that identity, ooh, buddy.
In "Letters to a Young Poet," Rilke writes:
"Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: Ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?"
Must you? If you must, and you want to both discover and get real with who you are as a being -- no religious talk involved here -- then I'd love to invite you to The One-Week Daily Writing Devotional.
This paragraph in Glennon Doyle Melton's Love Warrior had me saying yes, yes, yes. I hope you'll be encouraged by this, too:
"Growing up is an unbecoming. My healing has been a peeling away of costume after costume until here I am, still and naked and unashamed before God, stripped down to my real identity. I have unbecome. And now I stand: Warrior. Undressed for battle. Strong and benevolent. Both yin and yang. Complete, not in need of completing. Sent to fight for everything worth having: truth, beauty, kindness, shamelessness, love. To march into pain and love with eyes and heart wide open, to stand in the wreckage and believe that my power, my love, my light, are stronger than the darkness. I know my name now. Love Warrior. I came from Love and I am Love and I will return to Love. Love casts out fear. A woman who has recovered her true identity as a Love Warrior is the most powerful force on earth. All the darkness and shame and pain in the world can't defeat her."
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