Living and writing

Dear Friends in Christ -

Now that I'm in the habit of writing to you every day, I feel "overstuffed" with things to say when it's been a few days since I've had a chance to sit down and write. My writing mentors say that in order to really be a serious, good writer, you have to write every day. Well, the truth is, as a mother and a priest, sometimes those roles have to take precedence.

One of the things that writing well and often presses me to do is to really be present in the moments of my life when I'm not writing. In order to be able to share thoughts and stories with you in a way that catches your imagination, I have to be able to not only tell you, for example, that I went to the post office this morning. But I also have to have paid enough attention that I can convey to you in living color what happened while I was there: the agony expressed on people's faces when the man in front of us needs to send something to a foreign country and hasn't filled out the paperwork, the gentle selflessness of the woman who opens the door for each newcomer who comes inside on a wave icy air. Today, the comraderie I found in the small community of people in the post office, feeling the joys and pains of the season together, was enough to give me a little lift (the caffeine in the coffee I brought along helped, too, make no mistake!).

I have stories from this past week stored up inside me, and now that I've got gifts on the way to friends and family, I'll take time to share them, because hearing and sharing stories of day-in-day-out griefs and glories helps me to understand how it is that the incarnation is still happening, right here, right now, where I/we need it most.

Faithfully,
Janet+