On writing and books

Got up early this morning, partly because sleep isn't actually giving me rest and partly because I need to pay attention to something outside of that pale room. On my way out of the house I picked up an Anne Lamott book called "Bird by Bird". I've never actually read anything by Anne. The book belongs to Abbye my housemate. It's a book about writing and though I've been making stories since my sixth grade teacher Mrs. Sinclair gave us creative writing assignments each week, and though I've been writing songs for the last fifteen years, I'm just beginning to come home to the idea of myself as a writer and artist. (In fact sixth grade inspired me so much i actually wrote a really terrible nonsense book in seventh grade)

I know that to write I must read. I do love reading but lately I've been sleeping through most of the reading and writing, praying and waiting that my spirit and body need. I'm also coming home to the fact that books are sacred to me - they are little holy places set aside to enter into and feed on possibilities that would never occur to me. Most of my best mentors, the ones who've opened up new worlds to me, are people I've never met except in books. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Henri Nouwen, Wendell Berry, even the Apostles, Prophets, and in a way Jesus himself! It's funny to realize that the Kingdom in many ways comes first through a book - words on a page become words in flesh. 

Here's a book quote of the day, which I think would make a great poster to frame and keep in the house: 

"Because for some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. They are full of all the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. And quality of attention: we may notice amazing details during the course of a day but we rarely let ourselves stop and really pay attention. An author makes you notice, makes you pay attention, and this is a great gift. My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean. Aren't you? I ask."  

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird