Posts from for 07/11/2014

A little wit, a little struggle, a lot of Jesus

Bringing words under subjection {Sonnet}

By Tresta Payne on Jul 10, 2014 08:37 am

I’m trying to find my groove again, after over-burdening myself with writing commitments that were good  but not the best. 

I like to tease my husband about learning to say no. When you’re a handy-man with great wisdom and spiritual insight, like he is, you can live with the phone attached to your ear and your hands may never rest from the abundance of good things you can do.

My problem is not one of being too-handy or wise with counsel. My problem is a brain that thinks it can handle more than my coffee pot can keep up with. Or, to be more spiritual, wanting to do things that God hasn’t necessarily called me to.

But He always teaches me in it, because nothing is wasted in His economy.

I have no regrets from the commitments I took on actually, and I have no regrets from stepping away. It was a great relief when my phone told me Tuesday, “Article due today”, to push cancel and laugh in the face of a deadline that no longer had authority to suck life out of me.

I’m just not a prolific writer, not a fast one or a newsy one or one who writes best under pressure. The best lesson I’ve learned from a season of deadlines is that I have to carefully choose the areas of my life where I need pressure.

Writing is not one of them, at this point.

So in trying to find my groove again, I’ve re-visited some writing prompts here. A groove occurs from following the same path again and again, so you may see more of these in the days to come.

Today’s is sonnet.

How appropriate.

A sonnet is a beautiful, but ordered and very specific, thing. Very specific rules. Very limited space. A poem of 14 lines.

A sonnet takes the beauty of words, meter and scale, rhythm and rhyme, and disciplines them all into obedience.

It’s so the opposite of what my writing has been lately, but order and beauty go together well even if a rebellious spirit wants to be free. Order and beauty bring all of life, all the kingdom, all the wild and the free, into a place where well-laid plans meet spontaneous song and dance. Merging, growing, laying down rails on something that could be dangerous if unchecked.

Sonnet.

It’ll take a little discipline, a little finagling and goal refining, but I’ll bring words under subjection and maybe something beautiful will happen after all.

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