{"id":30046,"date":"2023-01-12T14:37:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T22:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30046"},"modified":"2023-01-12T14:37:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T22:37:15","slug":"the-writing-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-writing-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Writing Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing was my refuge.\u00a0 I could slip in between every word and feel my body stretch itself without limits, rules or expectations. Especially as an imaginative, outspoken adolescent girl whose critical thinking skills were wildly untethered, my songs, poems, letters and stories sheltered me with their walls. The more than 300 journals in my garage and bookshelves may not have earned me a living but the self, living in between the words, has most certainly given me a life (along with my husband and adult children).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Forty years later, writing is more than a refuge for me; it\u2019s the only work I do that when I am engaged, \u201cenables flow, the state in which you get so completely immersed in your work that you lose track of time as the work becomes effortless,\u201d (Csikszentmihalyi as quotes by Ahrens).\u00a0 Assessing my abilities to read, take notes and write essays is another matter entirely.\u00a0 Like Emily Dickinson, when I try to organize my thoughts, my little brain explodes.\u00a0 For this very reason, I chose to enter this doctoral program hoping for three Structures to bring into my refuge with me:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Focus:<\/b>\u00a0 Like Ahrens suggests, I need a, \u201creliable and simple structure to think in that compensates for the limitations of our brains.\u201d\u00a0 Structured into my daily life are 90 minute writing blocks without technology or interruption. The last few years have proven difficult with this habit as my ability to concentrate has been challenged by parents aging and dying, children becoming adults, and my own inner voice seeking her safe place again.\u00a0 But truth be told, I am happiest and most alive in my relationship with God when my day includes these 90 minute writing blocks. As I read serious books, take intentional notes from my research, I will know how to live with more focus.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Clarity<\/b>: A well cultivated critical thinker, \u201craises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely,” (Paul and Elder). Or as one well-known researcher says, \u201cClarity is a kindness.\u201d\u00a0 When I examine my intentions for reading, taking notes and writing essays for our doctoral program, I believe this one is at the heart of my hopes as a communicator. How can I become more clear in what I communicate until I am clear about what I am thinking? My refuge needs some rearranging and I believe clarity will serve me well as this doctoral program progresses.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Conversation: <\/b>\u00a0I wrote in my admission essay that I needed this program and I need more education\u2013not just of my mind but my whole self. I write and speak as a form of worshiping God and loving people as I am so deeply curious about what motivates others as who they are at their core.\u00a0 Within the past 10 years, the world in which I lived and moved changed so drastically. People\u2019s needs became specialized; I forgot how to understand people.\u00a0 Ahrens argues, \u201cwriting is, without dispute, the best facilitator for thinking, reading, learning, understanding and generating ideas we love and have;\u201d however, I would suggest <\/span>conversation <\/span><\/i>with life-allowing, thoughtful servant leaders is an equally fair or even higher facilitator for good thinking and writing.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As companions on this doctoral journey with me, how can we help one another grow in quality of attention and conversation as time allows and God brings us together?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Writing was my refuge.\u00a0 I could slip in between every word and feel my body stretch itself without limits, rules or expectations. Especially as an imaginative, outspoken adolescent girl whose critical thinking skills were wildly untethered, my songs, poems, letters and stories sheltered me with their walls. The more than 300 journals in my garage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2045,2504,2505,2199],"class_list":["post-30046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-clarity","tag-csikszentmihalyimihaly","tag-georgefoxuniveristy","tag-on-writing","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30051,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30046\/revisions\/30051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}