Write Right

The Writing Life

Erin Beasley

Write Right Greets the New Year

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A cartoon girl with a red pen stands in the snow. Five birds are on a tree branch, which intersects with the words "to the new year, W. S. Merwin."

To the New Year

By W. S. Merwin

With what stillness at last

you appear in the valley

your first sunlight reaching down

to touch the tips of a few

high leaves that do not stir

as though they had not noticed

and did not know you at all

then the voice of a dove calls

from far away in itself

to the hush of the morning

 

so this is the sound of you

here and now whether or not

anyone hears it this is

where we have come with our age

our knowledge such as it is

and our hopes such as they are

invisible before us

untouched and still possible

Let’s Fill This Town with Servants

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Two friends give a side hug while hiking in Austin, Texas.| SERVANTS |

A FAMILY, with their eyes lifted UPWARD, and their love pressing OUTWARD, and their ambition pushing DOWNWARD, is UNSTOPPABLE.

Riley Sheehan, The Austin Stone

At the Austin Stone Worship Collective this year, we’ve focused on a single idea: filling our town (and ones nearby) with servants. We want to see Jesus lifted high, and one of the best ways to do that is through serving God, each other, and the communities in which we live. I like how Riley Sheehan frames the concept, explaining why I’m borrowing it.

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You Only Think You Have Writer’s Block

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Piece of paper with the words "can't think" written on it.“I don’t believe in writer’s block. I believe writers get stuck. One absolves responsibility. Admitting your stuck means you can fix it. […] Writer’s block is a sympathy card. Only writers could be so inventive as to come up with it.”

Neil Gaiman, Book Reading in Austin, Texas

The New Year ushers in the usual resolutions: eat healthier, exercise more, watch television less. For writers, though, the time period typically involves some commitment to a writing project. They aim to finish a novel or other manuscript before 2018 comes to close.

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Alphabet Adventure: R is for Rapport

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A young boy and girl hugging. Black and white photograph.Webster defines rapport as a relationship “marked by harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity.” It seems an appropriate word to begin the New Year, a wish for peace and unity. Such qualities, though, don’t arise out of nowhere. They require effort, devoted attention, time, and humility. Unity and peace — harmony — only come through bending toward other people rather than demanding one’s own way.

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To Whatever End

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Cottonwood Canyon, Oregon State Park.But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

“Where you die, I will die, and their I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”

Ruth 1:16–7, New American Standard Bible

I believe the phrase “to whatever end” finds its most popular use in a young adult fantasy series. It isn’t one I’ve read, so the words stick with me for a reason other than literature. For me, the words resonate because of where I currently reside, physically and spiritually.

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