The Writer's Journal

Alice C. Linsley

The journal is a writer's constant companion. With pen and paper at hand, the writer is able to save scraps, poetic pieces, and tidbits of thoughts that might otherwise be forgotten.

The writer's journal reveals recurring personal themes. Looking back at entries over many years, I find my mind has often been preoccupied by images and questions concerning authority.  A person in a uniform intrigues me: a policeman, a firefighter, a medical professional in a white gown. What is it about a uniform? Looking back through my journals I find many characters who wear uniforms - soldiers, doctors, clergy, etc.

I have sketches of plots involving conflict between corrupt people in power and those who have true spiritual authority. To this day, my mind is captivated by the struggle between worldly power and God's sovereignty.

If you write, you should keep a journal. Reading it later can speak to you about things in your consciousness that should be explored. This is potentially fertile ground.

Here are some thoughts that writers have offered about journal writing:

The American writer Jessamyn West wrote, "People who keep journals live life twice. Having written something down gives you the opportunity to go back to it over and over, to remember and relive the experience."

Gail Godwin wrote, "I often reread old journals and make notes to my former selves in the margin."

The French writer, George Sand wrote, "Writing a journal implies that one has ceased to think of the future and has decided to live wholly in the present... Writing a journal means that facing your ocean you are afraid to swim across it, so you attempt to drink it drop by drop."

"Journal writing is a voyage to the interior," wrote Christina Baldwin.

Mark Rudman has written, "We are drawn toward journals out of a craving for the authentic, for the uncensored word and thought."

Lyn Lifshin, an American poet, wrote, "...diaries should be like a ripped or stained sloppy bathrobe you put on when you're alone, that you can be yourself in. Some are more like fancy bathrobes waiting for company... Nothing I'd wear for just me and the cat."

Ed Pacht, Another New Hampshire Poet

In the following poem, Ed Pacht responds to his friend’s description of a dream he had of being with his late wife in the heavenlies, listening to music he was composing for “O, How a Rose e’er Blooming …”

The Rose
Ed Pacht

A rose,
red rose,
with blood that shall be shed,
a rose amid the thorns,
whose wounds shall soon bring pain,
a rose that blossoms brightly,
whose radiance fills the earth,
a rose that springs from ancient soil,
that grows upon a timeless branch,
and rests upon a golden throne,
while brilliant beings sing its praise



Ed Pacht on Poetry as a Calling

"Poetry is a calling. As a Christian, I consider it a sacred calling, an expression of something other than earthly. I consider this true even when, as is the case in most of these poems, the subject matter is not religious at all.

A poem represents a stepping aside from ordinariness, a suspension of the usual way of thinking, an entrance into a realm of words that point to what is beyond words. I find this to be true even in the most trivial of my poems. Even when I am making a bad pun, I find that I am not seeing as I usually see, nor thinking as I usually think. And then there are poems that speak of deep things I can barely imagine, and these too arise from extraordinary ways of thinking."

Raymond Foss, New Hampshire Poet

In the Hushed Choir Loft
Raymond A. Foss

In the dark of the empty sanctuary
he toiled, alone, refining his skill
preparing himself,
by drill and practice
to become a servant, an instrument
God’s hands on the organ’s keys
God’s voice in the purity of the notes
coaxed from the pipes in the chancel
to be ready on Sunday, in worship, in public
to share, to proclaim his praise
to minister in His church
through his playing
of the familiar hymns
so others too would know God
feel Him, as he surely does
through his faithful service

(Of Hyung-Kyu Yi, practicing alone May 25, 2006)


Raymond A. Foss (1960) was born in Westfield, MA, the oldest of five children. After moving to Claremont, NH at 16, he attended the University of New Hampshire, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1982 and a Master of Public Administration in 1984. He graduated from Franklin Pierce Law Center in 2004. His law practice focuses mainly on special education and family law matters.

Raymond started writing poetry while serving on the Barrington, NH School Board in 2000. The Reading Specialist had asked each board member to bring a piece of poetry to share at the April School Board meeting in honor of National Poetry Month. When one of his first two poems received a favorable reaction, he began to write poetry regularly. (See how important it is to encourage one another?)

In reference to this poem, Raymond has written, "I especially remember Hyung Kyu's fingers, the way they brought the pieces to life... And our church's organ really worked for his gift. He also plays the cello (again it makes me think of the way he held the bow, urging the notes out)."

Since 2000, Raymond has written over 2,200 poems, most of which appear at his poetry blog, here: http://www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com/

When not writing poetry or practicing law, he devotes his attention to his wife and their three daughters.

The PC Police Will Come for the Orthodox!

Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev: Liberal Christianity will not survive for a long time
From here: http://orthodoxeurope.org/#19-2-445

Intervention at the opening session of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, Geneva, 13 February 2008

I would like to draw your attention to the danger of liberal Christianity. The liberalization of moral standards, initiated by some Protestant and Anglican communities several decades ago and developing with ever-increasing speed, has now brought us to a situation where we can no longer preach one and the same code of moral conduct. We can no longer speak about Christian morality, because moral standards promoted by 'traditional' and 'liberal' Christians are markedly different, and the abyss between these two wings of contemporary Christianity is rapidly growing.

We are being told by some allegedly Christian leaders, who still bear the titles of Reverends and Most Reverends, that marriage between a woman and a man is no longer the only option for creating a Christian family, that there are other patterns, and that the church must be 'inclusive' enough to recognize alternative lifestyles and give them official and solemn blessing. We are being told that human life is no longer an unquestionable value, that it can be summarily aborted in the womb, or that one may have the right to interrupt it voluntarily, and that Christian 'traditionalists' should reconsider their standpoints in order to be in tune with modern developments. We are being told that abortion is acceptable, contraception is agreeable, and euthanasia is better still, and that the church must accommodate all these 'values' in the name of human rights.

What, then, is left of Christianity? In the confusing and disoriented world in which we live, where is the prophetic voice of Christians? What can we offer, or can we offer anything at all to the secular world, apart from what the secular world will offer to itself as a value system on which society should be built? Do we have our own value system which we should preach, or should we simply applaud every novelty in public morality which becomes fashionable in the secular society?

I would also like to draw your attention to the danger of a 'politically correct' Christianity, of a Christianity which not only so easily and readily surrenders itself to secular moral standards, but also participates in promoting value systems alien to Christian tradition.

We are facing a paradoxical situation. British secular politicians who share Christian convictions are concerned about the rising Christianophobia in the UK and initiate a debate on this issue in Parliament, calling for recognition of the country's Christian identity. At the same time the primate of the Church of England calls for 'a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law.'

I am sure I will be told that Christianity must become more tolerant and all-inclusive, that we Christians should no longer insist on our religion as being the only true faith, that we should learn how to adopt other value systems and standards. My question, however, is: when are we going to stop making Christianity politically correct and all-inclusive; why do we insist on accommodating every possible alternative to the centuries-old Christian tradition? Where is the limit, or is there no limit at all?

Many Christians worldwide look to Christian leaders in the hope that they will defend Christianity against the challenges that it faces. It is not our task to defend Sharia law, or to commend alternative lifestyles or to promote secular values. Our holy mission is to preach what Christ preached, to teach what the apostles taught and to propagate what the holy Fathers propagated. It is this witness which people are expecting of us.

I am convinced that liberal Christianity will not survive for a long time. A politically correct Christianity will die. We see already how liberal Christianity is falling apart and how the introduction of new moral norms leads to division, discord and confusion in some Christian communities. This process will continue, while traditional Christians, I believe, will consolidate their forces in order to protect the faith and moral teaching which the Lord gave, the Apostles preached and the Fathers preserved.

Surrender
by Peter Ould

You won
but I didn’t lose
You gave your all
and now you want
everything.
So I’m waving
my white flag
and I can’t tell
if the blood smears
on it
are mine
or
yours.


Peter Ould is the Curate at Christ Church Ware, an Evangelical Anglican church in the Diocese of St Albans, UK. He became a Christian in 1994. He began by worshipping in house churches (Vineyard and New Frontiers) and eventually settled in the Church of England. He attended Vicar Factory in Oxford where he helped to setup the international networking group Anglican Mainstream http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/ with which he is still involved.

Peter, who self-identifies as "post-gay", speaks and writes on issues of sexuality and identity. He works with groups like Living Waters UK and TFT to bring the message of restoration and wholeness for all of God’s people. He is currently the chair of Redeemed Lives UK. Peter is also a member of New Wine Leaders Network and Forward in Faith UK.

He is married to Gayle and they are expecting their first child in May.

Do You Know What is Good for You?

Father Stephen at Glory to God For All Things addresses the question of what is truely "good" for us.

"We live in a culture that has a fairly clear idea of what is good for a human being. We have notions of the “American Dream” and other ideals. Self-help books abound, each with its own understanding of what it means to be healthy, successful, well-balanced, etc. Frequently these cultural norms run counter to the writings of the Church Fathers - sometimes scandalously so. Consider the following excerpt from the Desert Fathers:

Euprepius blessed us with this benediction: May fear, humility, lack of food and Godly sorrow be with you.

I am certain that were I to end a meeting in my parish with such a blessing many people would be either confused, maybe even outraged. There are things in our culture that treat fear as always a bad thing; almost nothing in our culture promotes humility (consider things like “American Idol”), lack of food is a curse and Godly sorrow is just the opposite of the spiritual life marketed through most of our culture.

But the writings of the desert fathers have a different point of view. Their goal is the salvation of the human person. There is a recognition that hardship, whether in the form of fear, humiliation, famine or sorrow are frequent tools in the hand of God to bring about the sanctification of our lives and to re-create us a holy beings.

Christ immediately sets out to fast for 40 days following His Baptism. He does not begin His ministry without such hunger. He did not make Himself a stranger to sorrow, but purposefully delayed His travel to help his dying friend Lazarus. There He encounters weeping and anger, questioning and heartache. And there He raised the dead.

I cannot think of a single saint in the Church, from St. Paul and the Apostles forward who were stranger to any of the benedictions offered by Abba Euprepius. But modernized Christianity has made itself a stranger to these things. Theologians of various stripes go so far as to abandon the faith in the face of suffering and sorrow and discover they have no root in themselves. (A recent interview on NPR offers a very thin reason by the scholar Bart Ehrman, of the University of North Carolina, of why he no longer believes in God. Of course, he never knew or was a part of Orthodox Christianity and has simply reached a trajectory set by the modern academy).

The quote from Abba Euprepius is a demonstration of the Tradition - one that not only knew and understood the meaning of suffering and did not fear to offer such a blessing. But such knowledge can only be known in the heart. It is not a syllogism that satisfies the mind. Thus, we are forced to remember that the great and only battleground of the Christian faith is the human heart. Someone’s unbelief only tells me something of their heart at a particular moment. Unbelief does not tell us of the ultimate end of a person, for only the God who know the human heart can know such a thing. But only the human heart can truly know God. For in the heart all things dwell: heaven, hell, God, the demons. Everything is there.

It is little wonder that we seek to live somewhere else. But every other world is but a false or poor construct of the human heart. We must make that difficult journey and enter through the narrow gate if we are to find the wideness of God’s mercy and the infinity that is the fullness of the human person."

For Those Recovering From Divorce

The Single Sign
Hope Rapson


First one, then another, locusts came
Slowly chewing in small bite size pieces
Then with larger jaws, ripping chunks.
A roar of blackness filling the sky
Making one run for cover sensing all is lost.
The inner drumming of anxious thoughts
Hears a frenzied decrescendo
Ending in deathlike rest
Fear rises to look…hope pushes to the window.
Midday dawns again… a landscape wiped clean...

A dry dusty mouth sighs at sightlessness-
Seeds sown, seedlings grown, now gone.
Stumbling, searching for a single sign,
The wounded draws to slake the thirst of loss.
The dipper serves a single mustard seed.
Deep within the walking earth
Vision forms, a blooming possibility.
A stirring in miniature beholds horizon-
A hill where three lone trunks stand
Mark the place to draw the line.

Days of undetermined length and focus pass.
Dreams shared severed, goals given way to getting,
Hopes hurt beyond helping
Surprise the heart with storms and calms
Walled up, but waiting to be healed.

Beyond the boundaries…a shoot, a stem
A leaf above, some shade below…
Go unnoticed in the gray dawns.
But shine in the noonday,
Glisten in the evening’s gentle rain.
Within, warm wind comforts the sorrowing
Strengthens to search above and without
The heart’s door opens; the will walks out.
Stepping off the porch and onto the path,
Wondering wanders to the stand of stumps.

First one, then another, sparrows come
Collecting living bits and pieces,
Building nests in feathered heights,
Singing songs of first flights,
Multiplying seeds in yellow sprinklings about barren barns…
That simple sign…the seed sown silently
By the survivor, surges into a soaring swarm.
Abundance swallows the locust’s leavings,
Within swirling shine and sweet scents
Of a life more blessed than lost.