Thanks, Readers, for Meandering with Me. Now, Are You Ready to Also Write?

View from our Cabin in Minnesota Where I Write in the Summer

Where would a writer be without a reader? Irish philosopher, George Berkeley, in the early 1700’s, posited this question: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well, however you would respond to that, it got me to thinking: “If a writer writes, and no one reads it, was anything written?”

 

Working on my blog, Meandering Spirituality, the other day, I noted that there have been over 30,000 clicks since I began writing it in 2012. Most, of course, are from the United States and Canada, but there are also clicks from around the world. 

 

This led me, first, to give thanks for all of you readers, known and unknown. Not just for reading my blog, but for posing questions, making responses and, in the process, inspiring me to keep reading, thinking, meditating, studying, writing. Secondly, I felt thanks for the modern technology that makes this kind of give and take between writer and reader possible at little, or no, expense to either. So today I write with great gratitude for you readers, for technology, and for the people who taught me and encouraged me to use that technology.

 
Last year I published my book When the Northern Lights went Dark: My Journey through Loss and Grief to Healing and Hope (Amazon). That book rattled around in my briefcases for some 30 years because I could not find a publisher, and I could not afford to self-publish, which meant purchasing, in advance, a large number of books before it even went to print.

 

Then along came Amazon, offering self-publishing for free, as long as you are willing to do all the work yourself. Immediately, upon pushing the “publish” button, my book was available digitally through Kindle. Then, if someone wants a paper copy, they order it, pay for it, and Amazon sends the manuscript to a local printer who prints it and mails it to the purchaser. What a gift these technologies are for both writer and reader!

 

I share this, not just out of gratitude for what it has meant for my own writing, but to encourage you, the reader, to write. I will even tell you what to write about: the stories of your life.

I can already hear most of you retorting: “But I don’t have anything to write about!” Oh, yes you do. Has anyone else lived your life? Has anyone else seen the world exactly as you do? Especially if you have grandchildren, start writing these stories and what you have learned and observed about life. Most of those grandchildren are likely too young to be asking, “Grandpa, grandma, what was it like growing up?”  However, one day they will ponder those questions and they will treasure having those stories and observations in written form. And don’t share just your happy stories. Share your struggles also so they know that, whatever they are going through, everyone has challenges from time to time that can seem daunting.

 

This will also be a great gift to your kids, eventually. Right now, they likely assume they know you better than they really do. But one day they, too, will treasure those stories and how they all tie together. For example, I am now writing a book that picks up where my last book left off, focusing on my life with my wife Mary, our kids, and my journey trying to figure out how to do social justice, peacemaking, cross-cultural, multi-racial ministry in the North American church. I sent the first chapter to my writer-daughter, Jessi, and she responded: “Wow, that was really exciting. I knew many of the stories and events, but I had no idea how they all related to each other!”

 

Now, of course, you could photocopy what you write and make copies for your family and friends, but you might decide to share what you write with a wider audience, and modern technology makes that possible. Please write me if you want more information on how to do this.

 

As for my blog, I am grateful to Lindean Barnett Christenson, my partner in ministry at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Phoenix. As I headed to our Minnesota cabin in 2007 for a sabbatical focusing on spirituality related to nature (desert, mountain, cloud), she asked me to contribute to the blog she had started. I have since imported those posts into my own blog, which you can find under Nature Spirituality.

 

MLK's Pulpit in Montgomery

It was in the summer of 2012 that I started my blog, Meandering Spirituality. Mary and I were planning a lengthy trip to study the American Civil Rights Movement (and southern BBQ), and so, as we traveled, we visited and I wrote about Martin Luther King Jr., Selma, Little Rock, the Nashville Sin-Ins, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Memphis. These were my first 16 posts.

 

This was followed by a hiatus as I returned to busy, parish ministry, but, as I began to get ready to retire in 2016, I wrote “Retirement as a Calling” and that catapulted me into 65 posts in the past four years, along with the publishing of my first book.

 

Today I am overwhelmed with gratitude for you readers, the opportunity to focus on writing in retirement, all the people who have responded to my blog posts and book, all of the people who have read portions of what I have written and given me such helpful feedback and encouragement, including the eleven of you who wrote reviews on Amazon.

 

I pray for blessings on you as you continue your own Meandering, Spiritual Journey, and please give some serious thought to writing about that journey, how you see the world and what you have learned and experienced along the way.

Grandson, Dylan, Fire Island, New York