Terrapin Station

Book Review: Writing To God

Here's a cross post of my book review, posted today at RevGalBlogPals. 

Rachel Hackenburg's Writing To God: 40 Days of Praying With My Pen (Paraclete Press, 2011) is a gift that lasts for 40 days and beyond. It is designed to be used for any 40-day period, with a special section of "Prayers and Prompts for Holy Week."

Rachel, Pastor of Grace United Church of Christ in Lancaster, PA, is a newer member of the RevGals ring. I resounded with her blog posts at Faith and Water, and was delighted to be asked to write a review of this book.

Paraclete Press sent me a review copy and I immediately began using the book in my morning prayer practice. I loved it. In the past, I have done Morning Pages (from The Artist's Way), 750Words.com, and Praying in Color. All take me outside of myself in an important way, in that they are either not prayer (the first), or a foreign-to-me way of prayer. This book specifically pairs writing prayer with daily writing activity.

As "a words person," writing my prayers is something I have done all my life, in an attenuated form. That is: If I am praying for you, your name is bound to be written somewhere on my desk, my shopping list, even on my hand. Probably, many places. I explained the practice to a college friend by saying, "by writing you down, I keep you safe." I understand prayer differently, now; there is no guarantee of safety...but writing something, making it The Word, makes it real and embodied for me in a way that other prayer methods have not revealed.

For each of forty days, Rachel pairs a poetical reflection on a daily matter with a scripture, and prompts the reader to write to God to correspond to the passage. I found it a fresh way of seeing scriptures, many of which are so familiar as to be flat.

There is also an index of Scriptural Praying Prompts, matching the days of the 40-day cycle with the scriptures from which they are drawn in the order they appear in the Bible.

Rachel says, "Praying through your pen is not about finding the right or perfect words for prayer; it's about connecting your whole self in an act of physically produced prayers. It's about practicing prayer daily in the safety of a book's pages. It's about exploring the fullness of words as you journey with Jesus through the trials and passions and joys of life. It's about enjoying your conversation with the Holy, creatively, freely, sincerely, in mind, body, and spirit" (p. x).

The book may be purchased through Paraclete, which offers a volume discount program as seen on their webpage for the book. This would be a wonderful tool to use with a church group or a group of spiritual friends. It could be used in any season, though the 40-day structure and the Holy Week feature make it ideal for Lent. I recommend it!

If you have read this book, or read it in the future, please share your thoughts in the comments.

Labor Day: Thinking about Work

H/T to internet friend and RevGal Ellen, who posted on Facebook:  This is in honor of all working people everywhere, and in memory of the many generations of peasants, artisans, domestics and factory workers in my own family whose labor helped build both Europe and the United States.

I think of my great-great grandfather, Henry Meadows Butler, who was a miller, and his wife Louisa, who was the daughter of a miller.  Henry's father was Richard Butler, a tallow chandler.  Louisa and her second husband, William Davy emigrated to Chicago in 1879 and they started a company burning clay ballast for railroad cars.  My Butler grandfather was still engaged in this family business when he married my grandmother in 1912 and they moved to Texas. 

Later the family owned a dry cleaner's, and after a financial reverse, my grandmother and great grandmother did ironing at home. 

I think of my Gramma Beth's grandfather, John Dawson, who left England for America to avoid debtor's prison.  He took his wife and daughter with him (my great-grandmother, Gramma Etta).  My Gramma Etta invented a thread cutter that pinned to the blouse of the seamstress for easy access.  It was patented. 

I'll be working this Labor Day, about which I have moaned somewhat.  Looking at it, I don't have much to complain about.  I am part of the "knowledge economy;" my tools are words and images, my workplace a computer station.  My office is cool and warm in approximately the right degrees at about the right times.  In  fact, I "suffer" from pain in my arm brought on by sitting still and using a computer for hours at a time. 

I am grateful for those who've gone before me. 

 

 

 

To read about the history of the song

 

Here are the lyrics:

 

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,

A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,

Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,

For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!

 

As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,

For they are women's children, and we mother them again.

Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;

Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.

 

As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead

Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.

Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.

Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.

 

As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,

The rising of the women means the rising of the race.

No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,

But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.

 

Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;

Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.

I shouldn't tell you this, but:

I do not enjoy writing academic papers. 

Oh, I can do it.  Have done it.  But I have no interest in doing it any more. 

I used to think I was going to grow up and be an English professor.  So glad I got diverted from that early in grad school...by my current and much-loved career. 

If I had, as part of my job, to sit around in my spare time and think about things to do research and papers on, my head would implode.  (Maybe something other than literary theory and criticism would ring my bell, but so far that's all I've done.)

I was reminded of this today as I read curriculum vitae and scanned the long, long, long lists of scholarly publications the people have done.  Very impressive.  But it made me feel very, very ITCHY. 

Rest Well, Madeleine

My sister sent me this wonderful article about Madeleine L'Engle.

I will miss her so...even though she has not released a new book for a long time, and I'm sure she needed a rest (as my mother said).  I had a brief correspondence of sorts with her when I was in college - she used to send out newsletters and she always wrote little personal notes on them.  How in the world did she remember who I was?  what I had written her last?  out of all the starstruck young people who surely wrote to her?

That was her gift, of course...reminding us all how precious and unique and important WE are, each individual one of us, in all of our weirdness and scaredness and striving. 

My personal theology has largely been shaped by her fiction, and by that of CS Lewis.  She was, and is, a treasure. 

Online Journaling Workshop

I've signed up for an online journaling workshop HERE.  It's free (though donations are welcome) and anyone can play.

As you know I've been doing some body work to address old life issues, and learning a great deal.  It's led me to do some art (like Mindy's beady eyed cow:) 

and knitting, and I'm even playing with clay.  But writing is my first best ability, and some of these things seem to want to come out that way. 

So, more shall be revealed.