"At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then--and only then--it is handed to you." --Annie Dillard, The Writing Life Odd isn't it, that there is work …
The Feral Work in the Next Room
Annie Dillard's The Writing Life. I should have read it back in February, when I first began approaching my current project. Funny thing is, the image she describes in the following paragraph is one I have kept in the back of my mind for years. A work in progress quickly becomes feral. It reverts …
Work
Odd that "work" is on my mind at the beginning of the July 4th weekend. You can't study the Civil War without being constantly reminded of slavery, and henceforth, "work." Slavery was about labor that must be performed by someone if crops are to be harvested. As I think about my next writing project, …
An Artist’s Prayer
Dear God, You make, I make. You make me to make. What am I to make today? What are You making today, and what is the plan for how our making? In every small corner of every large nation, human beings are setting out to take disparate materials and fashion them into a piece …
“Do the Work” by Steven Pressfield
What is it about people who speak with "authority" that can be so inspirational? (Who does that make you think of?) Almost two years ago, I wrote a blog post about the metaphor of war as it related to prayer. Read it here. I questioned whether war was the best frame through which to …
JEFF BERRYMAN 