photo: Canva
Today is the 4th in the series at Kate Motaung’s blog titled On Being a Writer by Ann Kroeker and Charity Singleton Craig. The book is also available at the website. This is week two. She has links to all these links and earlier posts on her site. Here are the links to my earlier posts: Identify, Arrange, Surround.
Notice seems like it would be essential for a writer. I definitely get why it is paired with surround!
Notice is something I haven’t struggled with a lot. But it doesn’t always come through in my writing…at least not the sensory part.
Notice has affected me in the way people respond to my questions…in and out of Church!
My problem in real life has been how to tactfully comment on what I notice. As a child and young person, notice took the form of gazillions of questions! For my mother, they were not particularly enjoyable, particularly after #5 question! She preferred questions she could answer and most of mine were not easy to answer, at least not to my satisfaction! Remember, we didn’t have google back then.
My problem in real life has been how to tactfully comment on what I notice. Click To TweetSadly, I learned that particularly in the church, there were some questions you just didn’t ask! Years later, in the churches we served, I made sure to ask those questions aloud…or some form or them. I wanted people to know they were in a safe place to ask those questions and find the answers.
- What if you don’t have your devotions every day?
- What if you have difficulty forgiving?
- How do you forgive when a person has hurt you deeply?
- How do you love people who are just plain weird and you can’t find anything in common with them? etc.
As I grew up, I met and married my husband. He loved questions…even those He didn’t know the answer to. He enjoyed the challenge of finding answers. He even had questions I hadn’t thought of! He helped me understand that not all questions have easy or quick answers. Some will never have full answers this side of heaven.
He is a quieter person than I, but no less thoughtful. He is a much better listener than I for sure! The church members who talked to him loved that about him. His father died when he was in junior high. He didn’t blurt out his questions or answers, but we would discuss them often in the light of what we knew and often we found answers together.
Our years in Jamaica were full of notice, not always easy, but full of new experiences and awareness of feelings!
During our years in Jamaica, my senses were particularly assaulted…in delightful and difficult ways!
- the beauty of the blue-green Caribbean waters,
- the smells in a crowded bus on a hot day where deodorant was rarely used,
- the colors of the pink anthurium, blue agapanthus, the red ginger lillies and hibiscus in colors this Florida girl had never seen, mixed with the lush greens of the tropics
- the tastes of curried goat, fried plantain, rice and peas, fricassed chicken, to name a few…and who can forget the flavor of Pickapeppa sauce!
- It was a sensory place to live with music and sounds all around.
No, it wasn’t quiet. But quiet wasn’t what we needed then. We needed to learn to feel, taste, smell…and love.
No, it wasn't quiet. But quiet wasn't what we needed then. We needed to learn to feel, taste, smell...and love. Click To TweetOur home was where the long distance phone was for the campus…and the public speaker for off hours communication to students.
Our children were born during those years. I needed to be up and dressed in the mornings each day because people were in and out of my house at unpredictable times! It was a little crazy for sure!
Our American values were challenged to the core…as well as former Christian ones
And we noticed so much about our own values too. How much we as Americans focused on tasks instead of people, how our lives rotated around time and tasks instead of people and their needs.
We noticed so much about our own values too...how much we as Americans focused on tasks instead of people. Click To TweetLiving in Jamaica for those 7 years was absolutely life changing. It affected our later ministry…sometimes to the frustration of some church members. I was never able to leave someone who was struggling including one of my kids, in order to be on time for a church event. (I was rarely leading them. It was one of the reasons I didn’t teach Sunday School!) I knew the church could go on without my presence very well. It didn’t happen often, but if it did, I knew where my priority was. Jamaica did that for me.
I learned more about feeling, in Jamaica. I noticed things about people that I never did before. My father died suddenly while I was there and that whole event changed me in ways that made me notice others and their pain more.
It was the balance I needed to my prior life that was constantly pushing me to ignore feelings, my gifts, the ways GOD had inclined me to serve…and be totally logical and a bit of a robot. Supposedly, it was Biblical, but it was anything but!
Even though I wasn’t writing then, it was all great preparation for a writing life. Noticing…the world around me, the pain and joy of others in my world, the humor that is happening in the now, the beauty in GOD’s creation, and the experiences of my life…it is all right there to incorporate into what I write about.
How delightful!
Beautiful writing, Martha, and I loved how you coupled the very sensory writing with the pathway you walked us through your faith journey. [I personally very much appreciated this post as it set some thoughts in motion about how one needs to live certain experiences in order to change in ways in which you need to change…God is most definitely very wise indeed!]…thank you!
thanks for stopping by helen:)the outcome of this post for me was that i changed what I’m going to write about for my 31 day series. it has been a struggle and i realized that writing about jamaica has been easy. I’m going to do a series on 31 things i learned by living in jamaica. i think it will be lots of fun:) i made my list in no time!
I’m looking forward to this series! I appreciated this post.
“we as Americans focused on tasks instead of people, how our lives rotated around time and tasks instead of people and their needs.”
I remember my never-late Father quoting Walford Thompson that West Indians are event-conscious, not time-conscious. They had their priorities right.
i knew you would be happy about this series kay:) i hope i do it justice. i definitely think you are right kay:) i had another plan for the 31 day series. then i wrote this post and realized i had so much to write about Jamaica that i learned there so i changed my mind!
How could you not have heightened senses living in such a beautiful place? Maybe we ALL need to make that trip 🙂
I feel similar about “church stuff” I am pretty straightforward and real; and I want people to be real with me too. If I ask how you’re doing, I MEAN it, and I want to know.
Tactfully comment? yep, me too! And how to tactfully write about some of those real life situations that I notice, like we talked a little about at the retreat.
🙂 i guess that’s why we get along so well christy:) yes, jamaica we quite beautiful and an easy place to grow plants! did you know that even fence posts sprouted? it was the funniest looking thing!
it is sad to see the games we often play in church and other places:( may GOD help us.
Martha, your word pictures of Jamaica are beautiful. I can so see that place pictured in my mind now. And in the church, it is so important for us to ask those questions.
thanks tara. yes, it is important:)
I love your post- your description of Jamaica really brings it to life. And I agree with you about the questions- it is so important that we can discuss those things. I feel like I’m often the one asking the awkward questions, and sometimes it seems people get so threatened by questions that we can’t fully answer, or they think it’s doubting God to ask questions. Fortunately I have found people who understand that it’s not doubting- just trying to understand more- and people who are willing to discuss the difficult questions and realise it’s ok not to have all the answers.
thanks carly:) it is important to express our questions. putting them into words often helps us know if we are coming from a perspective of unbelief or faith, cynicism to trust. when the ideas float aimlessly in our heads, they are hard to pin down. as we talk, discuss and interact with GOD and other believers, we find truth and where our hearts are. do they believe? where do they need help believing? GOD shows us over time through his Word and His people.
Those questions at church I labeled “power questions”. They are really important because they are application questions. How do I do……. What if I can’t……. I get so frustrated when these kind of questions are overlooked. Perhaps they don’t have pat answers but they are faith suckers. They can swirl around in out heads and rob us of peace. Just voicing them can help us feel connected to others who ask them also. Sorry, you got me going there. I enjoyed your descriptions of Jamaica.
you are right gabriele! they are faith suckers. I hadn’t thought of them in that way! I just noticed that when people couldn’t even voice them, they didn’t seem to be able to move very far in their faith or fellowship. this feeling that everyone else in church has their act together except me is so not true! the truth is that no one has their act together and that is why we need Jesus! the christian life is not a formula, it is a place where all of us broken people come together with a common realization that we desperately need Christ! at that point, we will have the kind of fellowship that the bible describes…but not until then! it’s a bit of a rant for me too. i hate watching people live in misery when they could be enjoying their faith more!
As I read about the ease with which you have taken in the world through your senses–and the intense curiosity that generates questions of all kinds, even uncomfortable ones–I’m not surprised “Notice” comes so naturally to you. You’ve taken us on a sensory journey in this blog post, and I hope you do practice incorporating more “notice” into your writing. It’s rich and specific, setting your writing apart from anyone else’s in the world–only you have witnessed certain events or drawn deep of particular scents at a particular moment in time. And only you would think to ask a particular series of questions that force a person to dig deep.
Great post.
thank you ann:) it wasn’t always the case. i found that once i stopped worrying about what others thought, it became much easier. editing my thoughts and feelings was something i did for much of my childhood and caused a lot of anxiety. during those early years of our marriage in Jamaica, I seemed to find comfort in learning more about the uniqueness of why i was put here. it seemed to help:)
Well, praise God for Jamaica, then! You made it come alive in those few bullet points. I could taste it, smell it, see it! Did you ever listen to my podcast about using at least three senses to bring writing to life? It fits with your post. I’m afraid to put in a link…if you go to my podcasts, you’ll see it. Episode 13.
i will definitely take a look ann:) thanks…and thanks so much for your input.