Writing has always been a part of my life. When I was in school I wrote for assignments. In my professional life I wrote a lot also - lesson plans, official letters, research (thesis, dissertation, and a few published works). This kind of writing, while work, always had a format and an outline. I write for myself in journals - both a teaching journal and a personal prayer journal and since I would be the only one to see this, no structure was needed. But this is so different.
I have never really considered myself a writer. I wrote for my job and have a knowledge of the pedagogy of the writing process but I have never really studied writing or ever thought about being a writer. I know grammar and style rules but these aren't enough. Writing these daily blog posts is really different from any kind of writing I have done before. My photography was the catalyst behind the blog and website in the first place but it is no longer the singular agent. While I have a general purpose for the blog as a whole, when I start to write each day I don't have a specific purpose for writing that particular post. A friend asked where I start to write, which made me think about how I write. Sometimes I start with the scripture that I am reading that day. The wonderful thing about being retired is that I can spend lots of time in the morning reading and praying. Since I have come to see the blog as my new job (see previous post) I begin the day with reading my Bible. Right now I have several things I am reading - devotion books and bible studies. I am also reading the Feasting on the Word commentary (see Favorite Books page) which follows the revised common lectionary (I can't thank my pastor, Ellen Di Giosia enough for this). There are some days when a scripture I read immediately brings an image to mind. There are some days when I go to my images and a scripture comes to mind. After I find both the scripture and the image then I start to write. I don't use an outline which is very different from the way I wrote professionally. I did develop a kind of format by having the two sections of each blog. I just put down ideas and then with the magic of technology re-arrange them. I try to make sure that I put something about where the image was taken. I spend a lot of time on word choice and I think about how each specific word can make a connection between the scripture and the image. Some days the writing is quick, it just flows, and other days I struggle and it seems to take forever. I also want to keep the writing brief and use an economy of words - which is really the hard part. As I have been writing I have noticed that I was more and more just writing sentences separated by spaces and then trying to make connections between them. So this week I have started using my ipad note taking app to draw the ideas and then make connections between them using arrows. I have now written 92 posts over a three month period. I look back on some of them and I can't believe that I actually wrote that well. And then I think, really I didn't write that. Those ideas weren't mine - they came through scripture and time listening to God and my images. (I usually pray before I take my camera out and ask for God to teach me and show me something that day - so even those aren't mine.) I am surprised that I still really enjoy this kind of writing, even though it is hard work, and I am not tired of writing. If I had spent this much time on writing something for work I would have been exhausted by now. I am not sure when all this writing will end or the picture taking will stop. I want to always point to Jesus and not to me. There is a song (Jesus, the One and Only) that I remember from Travis Cotrell's album for one of Beth Moore's bible studies that begins with these words: "There is a name above all names, let mine be lost in his." I want my work to be like this. I am honored and grateful for the kind, supportive words that you have posted or told me in person but I want to just point to Jesus and bring glory to God. I ask that you pray that I will be open to God's leading and speak only his words. I feel a little selfish in this next request but it has rained so much that I haven't even been able to get my camera out of the bag. I pray that I have the opportunity soon to hold my camera in my hand and pray for God to show me something beautiful in his world. Thanks for reading, Karen
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This page is in blog format so the posts are in order with the most recent first. Here I hope to post some of the things that I am learning from by Bible study and other topics.
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All the photographs in this site were taken by me. If you use or share anything from my website, please link back to this page. You are free to view and share this website by linking but I ask you not to download or redistribute anything from the site. Thanks.
Soli Deo Gloria,
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan