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Christianity, Devotionals, The Writing Life

Creativity and the Incarnation

February 8, 2020 janeduquette

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I feel happy and fulfilled when I do anything creative. I can feel depressed and useless when I ignore an urge to create. I believe, since we are made in the image of the great Creator, there is something in our Spiritual DNA that desires to create — a story, a painting, a song, a flowerbed, a delicious dinner. God works in us “both to will and do of His good pleasure.”

When I’m writing my novel, St. Anne’s, I feel fully myself. I know that nobody else can create the story I am writing. My unique fingerprint is on the work. It may be imperfect, but God will grow me through my obedience to His promptings. Sometimes words flow without effort. Upon re-reading a passage, I have thought, “Where did that come from?” When God’s in control, I write better than I know how to write.

I think all true creativity is incarnational, requiring only a willing vessel for God to use. The Father called the virgin Mary to be willing to create His only begotten Son. She agreed to the angel’s news with the words, “Behold the handmaid of the LORD: be it unto me according to thy word.”

The LORD is the Prime Creator, the only One who creates something out of nothing. When we humans create, we must use materials that God has already made.

God created color and the mathematics of perspective and line before the first person painted a picture.
God created music before the first human was led to build an instrument to demonstrate the melodies God put in his heart.
God created words at the very beginning. He is the Master storyteller.
God wants his children to allow Him to create beauty through them. True art.

[There is also false art, thrown together golden calves that are still worshiped by godless people. A lot of it is “modern” so-called art reflecting the chaos of a godless mind. It speaks only to people whose minds are also godless and in chaos. It is created with a motive of self-glorification and the fulfilling of fleshly lusts. There is chaotic music and pornographic writing — God’s gift of creativity gone wretchedly wrong.]

The most beautiful art that survives to this day seems to have been created by Christ-followers. I believe God painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel through the agency of Michelangelo.

I believe God used the pen of this artist to remind us of His love for us sheep.

Shepherd & Lamb

Who doubts that God used Handel to write the Hallelujah Chorus?

When you were a child, did you ever want to paint, write songs, or books? God creates those desires in us because He wills us to birth something that honors Him. Why do we let those impulses wither on the vine? Fear of failure? Fear of success? Fear of man? Fear? Remember, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear.”

So, I encourage you to rebuke the whisperer of doubt and fear. Pray and begin. Take the first step of faith. Then another. As you take the first step, God will move. He will honor your faith step and empower you to do what He gives you the desire to do. Every creative person you have ever heard of — Beethoven, Rembrandt, C.S. Lewis–started out as a beginner, taking those first wobbly steps by faith.

God delights to take ordinary people of low estate and create through them. It is because we are ordinary that He receives glory. Take courage from the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary about the incarnation of Jesus. “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”

Journey to Publication, The Writing Life, Uncategorized

Journey to Publication

October 31, 2018 janeduquette

: Lake Yale Word Weaver’s Retreat – 2018

Working on St. Anne’s

St. Anne’s is the working title of my novel. I brought my manuscript with me to the Word Weavers’ Retreat this past weekend. This Retreat was not a retreat in the sense of getting away from it all. This was more like getting serious about it all. Michelle Medlock Adams, a marvelous speaker, inspired us to not lose heart, to keep pressing on, to keep our priorities in order. However, most of the time was dedicated to what Word Weavers do, critiquing one another’s work.

I found the weekend both enlightening and confusing.

Enlightening: I learned about mechanics–those parts of writing for publication which are cast in concrete–things like layout rules, the correct use of ellipses and Em Dashes, which font is acceptable, rules for the use of italics. All of this was quite helpful.

Confusing: God comforted me, reminding me that critiques are given by human beings with often conflicting personal preferences. For example, I written the first page of St. Anne’s by jumping right into the action, hoping to hook the reader. One critiquing person said I needed to begin my story describing the setting so the reader could formulate a scene in his mind before getting into the action. So, I rewrote the opening for another review of the same passage. This time I was told, by a new critiquing person, that I should not start out with detailed setting information because most readers would prefer to jump right in to the action.

Hmm.

So, the Lord taught me that in a work of fiction, some people like narrative description, and other people like action. It’s a matter of preference. I will lose some people if I don’t begin with action; others will close the book if I don’t give them a setting first. People are different, and I won’t be able to please them all. I need to do what’s right for my God-given “voice,” and take the critique for what it is–one person’s opinion.

I learned a second thing that confused and surprised me. It is now fashionable to write sentence fragments punctuated as sentences. As a former English teacher and a mere novice to publishing in this millennium, I was saddened. It was like witnessing the end of literature as I have known it. Now I’m not talking about writing dialog. Dialog is different. I get that. For dialog to sound realistic, it probably should be in short bites, like people talk. However, modern writers are encouraged to write narrative passages that way too. It smacks more of text messaging than novel-writing to me. This weekend I read lots of unpublished manuscripts wherein the writer often wrote so-called sentences using no verbs.

At all.

Period.

C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity.

I guess my blessed reassurance from the Lord applies here too. People have different tastes. My tastes are more old-fashioned.

I don’t think I will embrace this radical change easily. Maybe I’m too old to change?

The books I like to read are old-fashioned. Seldom do I encounter fragments in the writings of Rosamunde Pilcher or C.S. Lewis, my favorites.

Will my tastes change?

I hope not.

Maybe.

Alaska, Devotionals

THE FINAL DAYS OF AN ALASKAN SUMMER – PART ONE

September 13, 2018 janeduquette

Alaska worked wonders again this summer. We go there to decompress …

to escape the world …

to stretch wide in the vastness of the land …

…. and to work with our hands.

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DECOMPRESSING:

The World is too much with us in the Florida city where we live for eight months. We go to Alaska four months to decompress. The damp air is pure and deliciously fragrant with spruce, moss, and wildflowers. Merely walking around the property is restorative, refreshing the soul. Every wildflower declares the glory of my Creator who is intimately aware of my every step, every thought, every breath. He created this blossom for me to enjoy today.

Consider the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin. Yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” JESUS

Now the days are shorter, the mornings noticeably cooler, and the birch trees dance against the cobalt sky. Winds toss these tall branches with a distinctive rustling sound, reminding me of Jesus’ words–

“The wind bloweth where it willeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but can’st not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So is every one who is born of the Spirit.”

Do you experience the God you cannot see, but you can hear, and feel?

This Alaska Summer, Lord,

You provided yet again …

unfettered Time…

on Your vast Land …

rejoicing in Your Presence…

knowing Your Spirit like the wind …

invisible but palpable …

moving as You send…

Lord, I’m so grateful!

Amen

Alaska

MOOSE-TIME IN ALASKA

July 10, 2018 janeduquette

This year we have been richly blessed with moose visits. One day we had seven! I was working in my greenhouse when this yearling came sauntering by with his sibling and his mama Matilda. This is a “baby” moose about one year old.

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Matilda returned a couple of weeks later with her new calves. We named them Mocha and Marvin. Matilda looked scruffy with scars and partial shedding of last winter’s coat. Before a moose gives birth, she chases away her yearlings so her newborns will not be hurt by them. Matilda’s yearlings still appear alone on our property from time to time, but not with their mom. 20180619_152245

The other morning I was inside the cabin when a different yearling strolled through the yard and began to investigate my greenhouse which door I had failed to close the night before.

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He poked his nose inside the doorway, so I knocked on my window to scare him off. If he had gone inside, I’m sure he would have destroyed the place trying to get out.

So, we love our moose! Last month while it was rainy and cold, I painted a picture of a couple to decorate our wall… 20180614_181703

… and now I am working on a wood-burned moose sign to hang on the front porch. This is a fun project. We have named our cabin “Spruce Moose” for obvious reasons.

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I’ll finish burning in a few more spruce trees, varnish it, and hang it by the front door.

We have less than two months remaining here in Alaska before we return to Florida. Tom still has lots of fish to catch, I still have more projects to work on, and lots of writing to do, so I’ll close for now.

Thank you for following.

Alaska

Alaska – June in Soldotna

June 14, 2018June 14, 2018 janeduquette

Summer finally arrived here in Soldotna last week. It’s been in the 60’s for a few afternoons, which feels like summer! The sun is hot here, and the long days are warming the earth.

SUNSHINE!

Tomorrow the sun will rise here at 4:48 AM and it will set at 11:33 PM. Our days will continue to lengthen until June 21, which is the longest day (19 hours, 3 minutes, and 21 seconds). In June it never gets very dark in Soldotna. After the sun sets on the northwestern horizon, the sky remains a twilight gray while the sun traces a little hidden crescent-smile behind the north pole, peeping back up in the northeast only some four to five hours later. Here, a constant twilight glow remains on the horizon.

In Soldotna, we don’t experience the Midnight Sun as do people north of the Arctic Circle. Within the Arctic Circle, at least a portion of the sun is visible from June 12 until July 1. The Arctic Circle lies at 66 degrees N. latitude which, in Alaska, is 198 miles north of Fairbanks. Since Fairbanks is pretty much in the center of Alaska, a LOT of Alaska sees the sun for some 19 days straight! (There are some pretty incredible pictures of the Midnight Sun online which I recommend you “google”.)

Alaska-born people revel in these almost endless days, playing outside long after this Florida girl has pulled the blackout shades and gone to bed. They fish, hike, swim (even in these frigid waters), bike, enjoy outdoor festivals, and just hang out … trying to squeeze the last bit of sunshine from the day, because winters here are LONG!

WILDFLOWERS:

Last week , I planted a wildflower garden beside the house. The sun is so hot, and the air is so dry, I must water several times a day to keep the seeds moist enough to sprout. However, I am not without wildflowers even now.

This year we came early in the spring, so I’m seeing early wildflowers for the first time right here on our property. Most of these I had to look up in my wildflower book because they are all SO different from the Florida wildflowers .

The Bog Blueberry’s blossoms are very tiny. They produce sweet round berries which are a favorite for the bears before the moose babies come.

This Dwarf Dogwood’s blossom looks so much like the Dogwood trees’ blossom in Georgia of my childhood.

Labrador Tea grows in alpine slopes in South-Central Alaska. They say you can make tea from the leaves for a diuretic, but it can also be poisonous, so…naah!

Also called “Prickly Rose,” because the stems are totally covered with tiny thorns, this flower has a sweeter rose fragrance than our hybrid roses.

The petals are used to make jelly or tea, and the “hip” or fruit is used for jellies and in baked goods

The Starflower doesn’t seem to have any practical use. It’s just delicate and beautiful to look at.

These Lupines are prolific along roadsides in poor sunny soil. This one was alongside my driveway, and is just beginning its bloom. It will grow to be about 16 inches tall, but this one is still about 8 inches.

Lupines are very poisonous, especially the seeds.

The Alpine Forget-Me-Not is my favorite! The blooms are so tiny, but so brilliantly blue and lavender. It is the Alaska State Flower which I found curious. The tiniest flower for the biggest state!

If you are interested in further photographs of wildflowers in Alaska, I hope you naturalists will let me know. It seems like a new variety appears every day or so.

God bless this good earth!