Blogging and Bee Balm, Words and Wisteria...

— Blogging and Bee Balm, Words and Wisteria? —

Blogging and Bee Balm, words and wisteria, computers and coneflowers, editing and echinacea?

What exactly do writing and gardening have in common? Besides the fact that I find joy in both, the more I write and the more I garden, the more similarities I find.

Both creative outlets begin with a blank page. Writers subconsciously see an article in everyone they meet while gardeners intuitively envision newly designed gardens in areas where there is nothing but weeds. Like our Creator God, who created the heavens and the earth and everything in it ‘ex nihilo’ (from nothing,) we are created in His image and have an innate desire to create.

When given a blank page, whether in writing or gardening, a crucial commonality is the big “C.”

My friend Merriam Webster defines the word Cultivate:

1. to prepare or prepare and use for the raising of crops; also : to loosen or break up the soil about (growing plants)

2. a : to foster the growth of

c : to improve by labor, care, or study : refine

3. further, encourage

Cultivating

1) How do I cultivate the soil or prepare it for raising hostas? I till, then amend my clay soil with peat moss, add green sand, an organic fertilizer, and mulch around each plant — I nourish my plants with the nutrients and the water they need to flourish.

Similarly in writing another article, I sift my past experiences, add good books, go to yearly writer’s conferences for motivation, attend monthly writer’s group and keep deadlines to keep me encouraged and on schedule. — I nourish my mind with the stimulating nutrients (and mugs of tea) I need to flourish.

Fostering Growth

2) How do I foster the growth of my hostas? Sometimes fostering growth means protecting my plants from water-stealing weeds, slugs and insects that eat hosta leaves or even family dogs that enjoy sleeping on top of my new Empress Wu hosta plants.

Fostering growth in my writing also means protecting my mind from time-stealing electronic media and everyday choices that eat my time, consequently leaving holes in undone manuscripts.

Refining

How can I refine my gardens? We ‘refine’ something by polishing or pruning it — weeding, adding waves of color, removing a plant that no longer seems to fit, or adding hardscape to enhance a focal point in your garden.

Refining my writing also includes the laborious chore of weeding, which is similar to the seemingly never-ending task of editing, revising and editing once again. It is labor to cut out words we believe help tell the story, but refinement actually means perfecting by pruning.

Encouraging

As Meriam Webster defines the word cultivate, it also means to further or encourage. Furthering the arts of gardening or writing takes a concerted effort — the work and act of encouragement. Kipling explains it best whether one is speaking about the art of gardening or writing:

Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
 by singing: -"Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade.
~Rudyard Kipling, "The Glory of the Garden." Simply put, we need to "just do it."

And the act of gardening and writing in itself is self-encouragement: I cultivate my garden, and my garden cultivates me. ~Robert Brault.

Happy Writing and Gardening... Janet

Jerry B. Jenkins told me to — so I did.

Jerry B. Jenkins told me to — so I did.

Jenkins suggested that writers (yes, that's me) should read good writers — adding that he reads anything by Rick Bragg, former New York Times columnist and non-fiction writer of masterpieces like All Over But The Shoutin’. Jerry B. Jenkins, author of that little 70,000,000-selling Left Behind series and more that 175 books was the keynote speaker at the Indianapolis Christian Writers Conference last November.

I recently finished Bragg's two memoirs.

The following are a few of my favorite Rick Bragg writing jewels from his Shoutin' book:

It would have been artificial to grieve, like bending over plastic flowers laid at a gravesite, and expecting to smell their scent. (pg. 108)

I had always wanted to go to Haiti, the same way I'd wanted to touch my mother’s hot iron. (pg. 201)

It is not that it has turned them against God, only that it has hurt them in a place usually safe from hurt, like a bruise on the soul. (pg. 247)

…the washing machine danced back and forth in the closet like a mentally deranged great-aunt. (pg. 270)

I captured the stories of dead innocents and other great sadnesses in my notebook, like butterflies pressed between the pages of a science project. (pg. 275)

And my favorite gems from Rick Bragg’s Ava’s Man:

They understand anger and even hatred, but fury is one of those old words that have gone out of style. Jimmy Jim Bundrum understood it. It rode his shoulder like a parrot. (pg. 35)

Her mind was not built for worry, for being sad. It could not absorb it somehow, the way some ground can’t hold water. (pg. 88)

The things the boys remembered about their daddy were not always spoken things, which are just wind, really, but things he did. (pg. 109) 

“That woman,” he would say, “could nag paint off a wall.” (pg. 135)

...what they had discovered in those years was not the love people whisper about over candles, but the kind they need when their baby girls is coughing at three o’clock in the morning. (pg. 156)

…the sky was changing from blue to a deep and angry purple, like is it was bruised.” (pg. 201)

Some men are just blessed that way. Some men walk in the room, and babies laugh out loud. (pg. 215)

Bragg's writings show the power of words.

I have two writing challenges for you today:

(1)  I double-dog dare you to read Bragg's books.

(2) Write you own gems — now.

Blessed Writing!

 Janet

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Following instructions from a great author!

I don't want to be rude, but I'm going to make this quick, so I can get back to reading the best book EVER!

A mere eighteen weeks ago I was hanging out with my buddy Jerry B. Jenkins — you know, the author or more than 175 books including that little 70,000,000-selling Left Behind series. J², as I like to call him behind his back because he has no idea who I am, also holds five state championships in tournament Scrabble. (Just a bit of book nerd trivia you can use to impress others.)

J², former editor of Moody Magazine, vice president for publishing, and now chairman of the board of trustees for the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, was the keynote speaker at the Indianapolis Christian Writers Conference last November.

Jenkins shared writing tips like:

1) “I try to read Strunk and Whites Elements of Style annually.”

2) Omit needless words

3) Write down good paragraphs

Jenkins also noted that he reads anything by Rick Bragg, former New York Times columnist and non-fiction writer of masterpieces like All Over But The Shoutin’.

I am currently reading Bragg's phenomenal work, and continue to reread his gorgeous phrases like pg. 85: "The old were of value. The old men could look at a leaf a younger man brought to church in his shirt pocket and tell him what kind of worms were gnawing at his tomato plants, and how to kill them. They could peek under the hood of a car that was running rough and, with a Case pocketknife, adjust the idling, reset the points and adjust the gap on the plugs, all before the first strains of "I'll Fly Away" drifted from the door."

Bragg's words are like hearing Bach or looking at Monet's paintings for the first time.

Gotta go...starting chapter 14!

Let me know if you've read his jewel printed on white paper?

http://www.amazon.com/All-over-Shoutin-Rick-Bragg/dp/0679774025/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1