WRITING TOPIC – COFFEE BREAK

This week sit outside one morning. Take your notebook and pen and your coffee or tea or glass of water. Drink the whole thing. Take your time. Try not to think as you sit. Use the time to clear your mind of all the thoughts that invade. Use the time to just be. Notice how the drink tastes. Notice what’s in front of you and around you.

Then open your notebook and make a list of topics you want to write about. Anything. As many as you can think of. I’m not even going to give you examples. But do me a favor: share some of them via the comments. One or two or the whole list if you want. We’d like to use some for red Ravine as the year goes on. Your inspiration and our own.

Thank you, and have a safe weekend.

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Because Sometimes Catholicism *Is* Scary

We moved into the new house yesterday. I’ve been unloading all my saints and folk art. I’m not sure where to put everything, so I’m sticking things wherever I find a decent spot for them, just to get them out of the way.

I put one of my carved wood statues from Guatemala in a perfect-sized shelf in our bedroom. The shelf has cubbies for several statues. I was thinking maybe I’d put all my collection in that area.

This particular one I got a long time ago at an auction. I liked how big her eyes were, like maybe you’d just walked in and caught her off guard. Here’s a not very clear picture of her:

This morning when I got up, I noticed she had moved. I fell fast asleep while Jim read in bed. I guess he got to thinking she was a little spooky. Maybe she reminded him of those portraits like my grandma used to have where the eyes followed you all around the room. Maybe Jim started to feel like my wooden saint was staring at him.

Here’s what she looked like when I saw her this morning:

I guess I’m going to have to reconsider where she goes exactly. Or, maybe she can stay in the bedroom with us and spend daytime watching over the room and nighttime staring at the wall. We’ll see.

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