Gratitude Journal

 I mentioned Ann Voskamp's  One Thousand Gifts, on a previous blog.  The book inspired me to start my own gratitude journal with the goal of making one thousand entries in the year. 
   I started off with a great list of family, church, faith, friends, home, my cats, all the easy obvious things.  Then I had to look a little harder, but it was spring and each day brought some new miracle.  Flowers at the Butchart Gardens, new shoots in my own garden, roses tumbling from my trellis.  In order to meet my goal I only needed to write in three things a day.  Easy, I thought.  And it was easy.  I live in a

beautiful, peaceful part of the world.  I am free to worship as I please.  I have enough of this world's goods to be comfortable, and last Saturday I exercised my right to vote.  Three gratitudes a day is a piece of cake.  -- NOT!
   Not that I'm not grateful every day, but finding something new each day is getting harder and harder.  I've already done the cats and the garden and my family.  It's winter now so no new flowers to exclaim over but I did make note of the bounty of harvest and the sweetness of the Golden Delicious apples off my tree.  
     I've given thanks that I got to sing in the chorus of Britten's War Requiem (a very difficult work not often performed so singing it was a rarity) and I've given thanks that I'm finished with the War Requiem. :-)
   I've recorded the sunrise and the sunset several times, even noted that sunrise every morning is a miracle in itself.  I look out at an every changing view of ocean and mountains but I think it's cheating to keep noting the shades of blue in my journal.  Isn't the object of the exercise to find one thousand new moments of gratitude in the year?

   So, here I am, falling behind in my goal of three things a day.  Not because I'm ungrateful, but because my blessings repeat over and over.  Now I ask you, ICWFers.  Can I journal the same things more than once?  Has anyone else taken the 1000 challenge or something similar?  What are your experiences?

Alice Valdal lives in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.  She writes, knits, bakes, bicycles and is owned by two cats.  She is grateful every day for her husband and all the other blessings in her life.  Visit her at  www.alicevaldal.com or atfacebook.com/#!/alice.valdal.5

Published books: 

Her One and Only

The Man for Her

Love and Lilacs

The Man Who Loved Christmas

    

FILLING THE WELL

  Fill the well, feed the muse, restore the spirit, the phrases are many but the idea is the same.  As creative artists we draw on the well of our inner being in order to create something new, whether it be painting or music, poetry or prose.  Julia Cameron in her book The Artists Way, uses the term "fill the well" and recommends artist dates, i.e. a date with ourselves alone to fill up our well of images and experiences.  By her definition, having a companion on the date equals a distraction and the well remains empty.  
    I don't necessarily agree with Ms Cameron.  I find inspiration in coffee with a friend, or a gab-fest with other writers or singing in a choir of a hundred, but I'm all in favour of artist dates.  One of my favourites is a good walk in a beautiful setting.
    Living close to the Butchart Gardens as I do, it's a perfect place to revive a tired mind.  Even, or perhaps especially, at this time of year when our weather is grey and wet.  (I'll tell you a secret.  I prefer snow to our endless leaden skies.)

    Butchart's famous sunken garden, in season, looks like this.

In late February it looks like this.  

But, the gardeners at Butchart's are an imaginative lot and at this time of year they turn one of the restaurants into an indoor garden. They have no compunction about mixing up the seasons so we see amaryllis next to primroses.

Hyacinth and gerbera grow together.  The forsythia tree and the magnolia bloom at the same time.

  
    Coming through the door, the visitor inhales the sweet scent of lilac and gardenia.  All thoughts of grey skies vanish.  We've walked into a magic kingdom.  Fountains and wind chimes charm our ears.  Underfoot is tile and gravel and wood to delight our feet with different textures and our ears with different sounds.

Every sense is tickled.  The well fills to overflowing.

On leaving the magic garden, I enter the gift shop.  I must keep my wallet firmly in my pocket.  So many beautiful things in one place.  China, pottery, enamel work, shawls and scarves, jewellery and jams.  And don't forget the packets of seeds, enough to inspire even the blackest thumb to try gardening.
    I come home just as the sun breaks out.  The well is full.  I'm inspired enough to write this blog.
    So, what fills your well?  Do you find inspiration in solitude or company?  Do you prefer music or a good book?  Do you like to watch or participate?

To read more of my thoughts and adventures and stories, go to 
www.alicevaldal.com

How Does Your Garden Grow?

-- by Alice Valdal


It's seeding time in my neck of the woods. Time to break up the crust of winter, bring in fresh compost, dig out the old and plan anew.



I love the garden, both in real life and as a metaphor for writing. I consider this preparation time like the dreaming time for a book. The time when all things are possible. The time when characters and settings and themes and the perfect hook float in my conscience, as enticing as the packets of seeds at the Butchart Gardens.



I can't wait for the days to get warm enough, so I start some seeds indoors on a sunny windowsill. My heart lifts when I see those first green sprouts.
In my writing life, I go out and buy a new notebook, one with a pretty cover, and I write snippets of dialogue, character interviews. I try out a few titles, play with names. I draw a picture of the town where the book is set, or sketch out the heroine's house. Ah, my story is coming to life, just like my little seedlings.


Once the garden is up, the weeding and hoeing become reality and I question my decision to plant such a large area! Can two people really eat four rows of green beans, not to mention turnips, onions, lettuce, beets, carrots, corn, peas. . . Like I said, I get carried away in the planning stages.

In my "great Canadian novel" I'm running into similar difficulties. Too many characters, too much useless detail. I have to yank out these "weeds" as ruthlessly as I attack the thistles in the strawberry patch, and we all know how that can hurt.




But finally, as the days grow hot and the dried up seeds respond to light and water and heat, my garden grows. I harvest those first tender leaves of lettuce. Onions and radishes adorn my salads. I feel rich as a king when I pluck the fruits of my labour.
My book takes shape. There is a beginning and middle and an ending. Somewhere among the tangle of words a theme emerges. The "weeding" becomes more like flower arranging. Move a word or phrase. Tidy up the syntax. The slash and burn of the first edits is over.

When I began my garden I envisioned something like the picture above, or maybe this one at right.

I dreamed of bidding wars for my novel. Saw it crowned with a "best-seller" sticker. Imagined the millions of people ( no point dreaming if you don't go big!) who would be moved by my words.


My garden, as seen below, doesn't quite measure up to the Butcharts. But it's pretty and it feeds my body and my soul.

Full of hope, I send my book to editors and agents. So far, no bidding wars, but I've written something I'm proud of. The work of creating the story has fed my soul and humbled my pride. I'm thinking it's time to buy a new notebook. Do you like the name Daria for a heroine?


The Bible is full of garden metaphors. "A sower went out to sow." The mustard seed. The Garden of Eden and the barren fig tree just to name a few. In John 12:24, Jesus spoke of his own death as resurrection in gardening terms. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (KJV).
As a gardener and a child of the land, all of these passages speak to me. But what of the inner city child who thinks milk and bread come from the store? I cannot think of a metaphor that would resonate with that urban child. Can you?

To read more of Alice's adventures in publishing land or in the garden, check out her website http://www.alicevaldal.com/

New Things

Greetings from the Wet, West Coast.

Canada's international reputation is of a land of snow and ice, but here on Vancouver Island the grass is green; red, yellow and gold leaves still cling to the trees.

We are also home of the famous Butchart Gardens http://butchartgardens.com/ and that's the prize in today's draw If you comment on this blog and leave your e-mail address, I'll enter you in a contest for a calndar and packet of seeds from Butchart's I'll draw the prize on Wed. Nov 18 and contact the winner by e-mail.

November is associated with the dying year, but for me this has been a time of new things. This blog for one. I've never blogged before so I've lots to learn.

On things technical, I'm updating my websitehttp://alicevaldal.com/ -- another skill set to add to my repertoire.

We're renovating the bathroom, although that is getting old! The two week job has now stretched to four and counting. Anyone remember the old Murphy Brown show on TV? Her house painter, Eldon, became a permanent fixture in her home.

I've also started rehearsals for the Christmas musical play at our church. This is a writing gig not of my choosing but one that has resulted in great rewards. I conduct a junior choir at our church. for several years we did a spring musical. Then, when the choir numbers fell, we expanded to include some adults and performed Once Upon a Christmas by Marian Rettke and Owen Hatch. This photo is my husband and I as Martin and Marya. The performance was so well received that I've been pressed into mounting a production every Christmas. Since the plays that suit our needs are few to nil, I've ended up writing my own. Stretches my imagination and my writing skills -- no room for telling. Everything must be shown. The play also stretches my faith. When rehearsals go badly -- as they always do -- I remind myself that I'm not in this alone. If I'm following God's plan, He'll provide what I need.

Another new thing is a Bible study I've joined. We meet in people's homes. I love the intimate setting and the chance to learn from each other and to ask any question that comes to mind. We're discussing evangelism in a pluralistic and relativistic society.

Joining International Christian Fiction Writers is new for me as well. I've been published in historical romance and contemporary romance, but directing my work toward the Christian market is a new path -- although it feels like I've come home. At present I have two completed manuscripts sitting in the figurative stew pot. I've learned over the years that stories that sparkle and shine and leap off the page at first blush turn dull and tarnished and flat when viewed from a distance. Rather than have an editor point out that fact to me, I hold onto the early version for a while. Then read and revise, hold again, read and revise until I'm satisfied it is the best I can do.

So there is my month of new things. Tell me about the new things in your life and let's hope along with poet Robert Herrick that new things succeed, as former things grow old -- Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve.

http://alicevaldal.com/